Russo-Persian War resulted in a Russian victory. The Battle of Aslan Duz on 31 October 1812 was the turning point in the war, which led to the complete destruction of the Persian army, thus leaving Fath Ali Shah with no other option but to sign the Treaty of Gulistan on 24 October 1813. Numerically, Persian forces had a considerable advantage during the war, a ratio of 5 to 1 over their Russian adversaries, however, the Persian forces were technologically backwards and poorly trained - a problem that the Persian government failed to recognize.
With the Treaty of Gulistan Persia ceded what is now Georgia, Dagestan, parts of northern Armenia, and most of what now comprises modern Azerbaijan to Russia.

He was of royal Persian blood, a descendant of Zoroaster and the Sásáníyán kings of Persia through Yazdigird III, the last king of that dynasty. Through His mother He was a descendant of Abraham through Katurah and Jesse. [BW8:874; GPB94; RB1:305]

He was born in Tihrán. His father was Mírzá `Abbás whose ancestral home is Tákur in the province of Núr. His father was also known as Mírzá Buzurg in royal circles. [BKG13; RB1:7]

In the latter years of her life while she was living in Iraq, Bahá'u'lláh instructed two of His devoted followers, Hájí Siyyid Javád-i-Karbilá'í and the wife of Hájí 'Abdu'l-Majíd-i-Shírází, to acquaint her in the principles of the Faith and she became aware of the bountiful gifts which God had conferred upon her. [DB191]

His father was Mírzá Muhammad Ridá. [BW4:234–5; LOG351; SE206; TN4]

He was a direct heir of the House of Háshim and descended thus from Muhammad and through Him from Abraham. [BW8:874]

Designations of the Báb include `Abdu'dh-dhikr (Servant of the Remembrance), Bábu'lláh (the Gate of God) and Hadrat-i-A`lá (His Holiness the Most Exalted One). [BBD1, 30, 93]

For biblical reference see LOG378. See RB1:304 for extracts from Shoghi Effendi re: His station.

See BBD39, GPB157–8 for a condensed history.

See Bab32 and TN4 for discussion of the date of His father's death

See DB28–30. See DB75 for the extent of His schooling. See DB75 n1 for his education.

Bahá'u'lláh's father dreamed that his son was swimming in a sea with multitudes of fish clinging to the strands of His hair. He related this dream to a soothsayer, who prophesied that Bahá'u'lláh will achieve supremacy over the world. [DB199–20]

The Báb was placed in the care of His maternal uncle, Hájí Mírzá Siyyid `Alí, Khál-i-A`zam (the Most Great Uncle). He was a leading merchant of Shíráz and was the first, after the Letters of the Living, to embrace the new Cause in that city. He was one of the Seven Martyrs of Tihrán. [BBD14]

According to Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl-i-Gulpáygání, the Báb was still an infant and had not yet been weaned when His father passed away. [DB72]

Defeat of the Persians at the hands of the Russians.
The Russo-Persian War of 1826–28 was the last major military conflict between the Russian Empire and Iran.
The war ended following the occupation of Tabriz and had even more disastrous results for Persia than the 1804-1813 war. The ensuing Treaty of Turkmenchay, signed on 10 February 1828 in Torkamanchay, Iran, stripped Persia of its last remaining territories in the Caucasus, which comprised all of modern Armenia, the southern remainder of modern Azerbaijan, and modern Igdir in Turkey. Through the Gulistan and Turkmenchay treaties Persia had lost all of its territories in the Caucasus to Russia making them the unquestioned dominant power in the region. [BBRSM55]

At the age of 12 Mulla Husayn finished his studies in Bushíhr and went to Mashhad, the most prestigious centre of religious study in Iran. In 1830-1 he relocated to Karbala to study under Siyyid Kázim. Mashhad is where the remains of the Eighth Imám, 'Alí Ibn Musa'r-Ridá are enshrined in the holiest Shi'ih site in Iran. [MH7-8; MH113]

As the eldest son, after the passing of Mírzá Buzurg, Bahá'u'lláh assumed His place as the head of the family. According to the custom He was expected to succeed to His father's position in the Ministry but He refused.

One of His first acts as the head of the family was to free the slaves who were engaged in serving the household. All took the liberty to leave but Isfandíyár and one woman elected to remain in service. [SoW Vol IX, April 28, 1918 p38-39, CH41]

The marriage of Siyyid `Alí Muhammad (the Báb) in Shíráz to Khadíjih-Bagum (b. 1821) the daughter of Mirzá 'Ali, a merchant of Shiraz. She had been a childhood friend and sometimes playmate. Their family homes were adjacent. [B46; BBD28, 127; BKG402; RB2:382; DoH107; DB76note3]

The Báb dreamed that He drank a few drops of blood from the wounds of the martyred Imám Husayn. After this dream He felt that the Spirit of God had taken possession of His soul. At this moment He received intimation that He was to be a Manifestation of God. [BBRSM14; DB253, HotD23-24]

Khadíjih Bagum apparently recognized her Husband as the promised Qá'im `sometime before the Báb declared His mission after having seen Him wrapt in prayer during the night. He bade her to keep this knowledge concealed. He entrusted her with a special prayer to be used before she went to sleep, the reading of which would remove her difficulties and lighten the burden of her woes.[DB191–2; HotD27; KBWB9-14]

Mullá Husayn returned to Karbilá after a journey of two years in Persia. He had been on a mission in Isfahán and Mashhad where he had successfully defended the views of his master, Siyyid Kázim, before the leading clerics of those cities. [MH49]

Mulla Husayn, as the leading representative of the Siyyid's disciples, received mourners for three days in Karbilá. [DB47]

After a period of mourning and 40 days of prayer and fasting, Mulla Husayn in the company of his brother and his nephew, set out for Najaf where he visited the shrine and then proceeded to Persia following the last wishes of Siyyid Kázim that his followers quit Karbalá and search for the Promised One. The party went to Búshihr and then on to Shíráz. [MH50–55, HotD28; DB51]

Two hours and eleven minutes after sunset Siyyid `Alí-Muhammad made His declaration to Mullá Husayn-i-Bushrú'í. [DB52-65]

“I am, I am, I am, the promised One! I am the One whose name you have for a thousand years invoked, at whose mention you have risen, whose advent you have longed to witness, and the hour of whose Revelation you have prayed God to hasten. Verily I say, it is incumbent upon the peoples of both the East and the West to obey My word and to pledge allegiance to My person.” [DB315-316]

See SI231 for information on the anticipated return of the Hidden Imam. See BBR2pg42-3 and DB57 for a list of signs by which the Promised One would be known.

See BW5p600-4 for a brief biography of William Miller the founder of the Adventist sect who, after intense study of the Bible, had predicted the return of Christ on March 21, 1844. See BW5p604 for mention of other Christians who made similar predictions.

See DB383 and BBR2pg25 for information on Mulla Husayn-i-Bushru’i. See CoB110 for the significance of the first believer.

See SBBH1:14 for a possible explanation for Mullá Husayn's presence in Shíráz at this time.

Nabíl-i-A`zam relates that Mullá Husayn was welcomed at the Báb's mansion by Mubárak, His Ethiopian servant. Others resident in this house at the time were Fiddih (f), responsible for the preparation of the food and the mother of Siyyid 'Alí-Muhammad, Zahrá Bagum. [DB53; KBWB5]

He reveals the first chapter of the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá' (the Commentary on the Súrih of Joseph. The entire text will later be translated by Táhirih. [B19–21; BBD190–1; BBRSM14–15; BKG28; BW12:85–8; BWMF16; DB52–65, 264, 216, BBR2pg14-15, GPB23, 73; MH56–71; SBBH17, HotD30]

Bahá'u'lláh has described this book as being `the first, the greatest, and mightiest of all books' in the Bábí Dispensation. [GPB23]

See SBBH5pg1 for discussion on the Qayyumu’l-Asma’.

This text was the most widely circulated of all the Báb's writings and came to be regarded as the Bábí Qur'an for almost the entirety of His mission. [BBRSM32]

This date marks the end of the Adamic Cycle of approximately six thousand years and the beginning of the Bahá'í Cycle or Cycle of Fulfilment. [BBD9, 35, 72; GPB100] Shoghi Effendi is quoted as saying that this is the second most important anniversary on the Bahá'í calendar. ZK320

The beginning of the Apostolic, Heroic or Primitive Age. [BBD35, 67]

See MH86–7 for an explanation of the implication of the word `Báb' to the Shí'í Muslims.

Three stages of the Báb's Revelation:

He chooses the title `Báb' and Mullá Husayn is given the title Bábu'l-Báb (the gate of the Gate).

In the second year of the Revelation (from His confinement in the house of His uncle in Shíráz) He takes the title of Siyyid-i-dhikr (dhikr means `remembrance of God') and gives the title `Báb' to Mullá Husayn. At Fort Tabarsí Mullá Husayn is called `Jináb-i Báb' by his companions.

At His public declaration the Báb declares Himself to be the promised Qá'im. [MH87–8]

Forty days after the Declaration of the Báb, the second Letter of the Living, Mullá `Alíy-i-Bastámí, had a vision that led him to Mullá Husayn and he accepted the Báb. During this period of waiting for the second person to recognize the Báb, He called Mulla Husayn to His house several times. He always came at night and stayed until dawn. [HotD41]. Sixteen others recognized Siyyid `Alí-Muhammad as the Promised One. The 18 were later designated `Letters of the Living'. [BBD138, B21–7; DB63–71, 80–2; MH73–81, MH121, SBBH1:16–17, GPB7-8]

See RB2:145–6 for the fate of the Letters of the Living.

See B26–7, BBD138, DB80–1, MH81 for a list of the Letters of the Living.

See BBRSM24–5 for more on the Letters of the Living.

See BBRSM24–5 for a discussion of the special places occupied by Quddús, Mullá Husayn and Táhirih.

See DB81-82 for the story of how Tahirih was recognized as a Letter of the Living by the Báb.

The intention of the Báb was to introduce the new Revelation slowly so as not to cause estrangement. He instructed the Letters of the Living to spread out and teach His Faith and to this end He assigned each one a special task, most often to their own native provinces. This is analogous to Christ's instructions to His disciples. He instructed them to record the mane of every believer who embraced the Faith and send their lists to His uncle, Hájí Mírzá 'Alí in Shíráz in a sealed envelope. Thus fourteen Letters of the Living were dispatched; only Mullá Husayn and Quddús remained with Him. [BBRSM14–16, 36; SWB119, BBR2p36, DB92–4, 123; MH82–6; SBBH1:19]

To Mullá Husayn He had given the task of delivering a Tablet to Bahá'u'lláh in Tihrán and going to the court of the Sháh to apprise him of the Báb's cause. Mullá Husayn was not able to gain access to the Sháh. [B48–57; BBRSM15 BKG32–3; CH22–3; DB85-87, 96, 97; MH90–2, 102] He was also directed to send Him a written report on the nature and progress of his activities in Isfáhán, Tehran and in Khurásán. Not until He received this letter from Khurásán would He depart on pilgrimage. [DB123]

Mullá Husayn carried a Tablet revealed by the Báb for Muhammad Sháh to Tihrán . This was the first of a number of unsuccessful attempts to make him aware of the Revelation. [BBRSM20–1; MH102; SWB13]

Note: MH118-119 and DB127-128 indicate that Mullá Husayn had been in Tehran "between the months of Jámádí and Rajab". The first day of Jámádí, 1260 corresponds to 18 June, and the last day of Rajab to 15 August, 1844.

See RB2:303, `The Báb … sent Tablets to only two monarchs of His day — Muhammad Sháh of Persia and Sultán `Abdu'l-Majíd of Turkey.'

From Shiraz he journeyed north to Isfahán where his message was rejected by the 'ulamás. Mullá Ja'far, the sifter of wheat, was the first and only one to embrace the Cause of the Báb in that city. There was however, a disciple of Siyyid Kazim, Mírzá Muhammad-'Alíy-i-Nahrí, who had been instructed to go to Isfahan some five years earlier to prepare the way for the advent of the new Revelation, who was receptive to the message of Mulla Husayn. He was instructed to go to Kirmán and acquaint Hájí Mírzá Karím Khán with the Message and then to travel to Shiraz. (This man's daughter was subsequently joined in wedlock with 'Abdu'l-Bahá.)[DB100]

Mullá Husayn then traveled to Káshán, about 130 miles from Isfahán. He had great success in that city but news of his conversion brought the wrath of the official clergy down upon him. [DB101note1]

He then went to Qum, another 100 miles from Káshán where he met with no success. After Qum he went to Tihrán. [MH98–101, DB101]

In Tirhrán he took residence in a madrisih and first met with the leader of the shaykhí community, Hájí Mírzá Muhammad, but he failed to win him over. He did, however, manage to convince a number of souls in private conversations. [DB103note1] This same reference seems to indicate that his well-wishers assisted in delivering the Tablet to Muhammad Sháh and his minister, Hájí Mírzá Àqásí but they did not receive it. " the book was not submitted to thy presence, through the intervention of such as regard themselves the well-wishers of the government." [Selections from the Writings of the Báb page 13]

See B53–6; DB104–7, MH104–110 for the delivery of the Báb's Tablet to Bahá'u'lláh by the young student, Mullá Huhammad-i-Mu'allim, a native of Núr. Mullá Husayn did not meet Bahá'u'lláh on this occasion.

On receiving the Tablet of the Báb, Bahá'u'lláh accepted His Cause and asked that a gift of a loaf of Russian sugar and a package of tea be given to Mulla Husayn for delivery to the Báb. [DB106-107] See DB123-125 for his activities in Khán.

Mullá Husayn left for Khurásán, as he had been instructed, winning supporters for the Báb's Cause while there he wrote to the Báb regarding these new believers and Bahá'u'lláh's immediate response to the Báb's Revelation. [B56, DB128–9, MH118]

After Khurásán he travelled to Najaf and Karbilá where he was to wait for further instructions from the Báb. [DB86]

See MH121–2 for a discussion of the speed of Mullá Husayn's journey before the letter was dispatched to the Báb. It assumes that Mullá Husayn departed after the Báb met with all the Letters of the Living (date not before 2 July, 1844.) In fact both Mullá Husayn and Mullá 'Alíy-Bastámí had been dispatched before this meeting. [DB85-86, 92, HotD46]

To promote the Cause of the Báb, Bahá'u'lláh immediately journeyed to the village of Tákur in the province of Mázindarán, His native province. As a result Mázindarán in general and Núr in particular were the first among the provinces and districts of Persia to embrace the new Cause. [DB109-117]

The Báb received the letter from Mullá Husayn giving Him details of his journey and meeting with Bahá'u'lláh and others he had contacted. See DB126-128 for information on the letter and the affect it had on the Báb.

Nabíl indicated that the Báb received the letter on 9 October (26 Ramadan) and that it was a deciding factor in His decision to undertake the pilgrimage. [DB126–7, 129]

Balyuzi says soon after the Báb received the letter, `in the month of September' He left Shíráz'. [B57]

GPB8-9 says He received the letter in the month of Sha'bán, 1260 (16 August to 13 September, 1844).

See MH119 where the author speculates that if the letter arrived on 16 Ramadan (29 September) and the Báb departed from the port of Búshihr on the 19th of Ramadan (2 October, 1844), He had to have been in Búshihr when He received the letter.

Birth of Mírzá `Alí-Muhammad-i-Khurásání, later known as Ibn-i-Asdaq, Hand of the Cause.

His father, Mullá Sádiq-i-Muqaddas had left his native Khurasan and travelled to the city of Karbila where he saw the Báb. Subsequently he went to Isfahan where he encountered Mullá Husayn Bushrui who led him to the recognition of the Promised One. He and Quddús were later dragged through the streets of Shiraz and expelled from the city.

The Báb returned to Búshihr. He sent Quddús to Shíráz with a letter addressed to His uncle Hájí Mírzá Siyyid `Alí who embraced his Nephew's Cause, the first, after the Letters of the Living, to do so in Shíráz. The Báb also entrusted Quddús with a treatise for him entitled Khasá'il-i-Sab`ih (`the Seven Qualifications') and promised him his impending martyrdom. Later he gave his life as one of the Seven Martyrs of Tehran, see 1850 19 or 20 Feb. [B77–8; DB142–3; MS2, GPB9-10]

To the departing Quddus He promised intense suffering in Shíráz and eventual martyrdom. [DB142-143]

B77 and GPB10 say the Báb arrived in Búshihr in February - March.

SSBH1p23 and BBRSM216 say 15 May, 1845.

Before leaving on pilgrimage the Báb had stated that He would return to Karbalá and asked His followers to congregate there. An explanation in part for the large following that had gathered there is the messianic expectation associated with the year 1261, a thousand years after the Twelfth Imám's disappearance in 260 A.H.. This gathering was perceived as a threat by the authorities. [BBRSM15, 45, 216; DB157–8; SBBH1p23, 32]

The Báb changed His plan to meet His followers in Karbalá and instructed them to go to Isfahán instead. A number abandon Him, regarding this as badá', `alteration of divine will'. [BBRSM16; DB158; MH125; SBBH23]

Some speculate that He did not go to Karbalá to avoid conflict and sedition. Many Bábís had gone to Karbalá armed in preparation for holy war, `jihád'. [BBRSM21–2; SBBH1:23]

Quddús met Mullá Sádiq-i-Muqaddas in Shíráz. Following instructions received in a Tablet from the Báb, Mullá Sádiq sounded the call to prayer using the additional words provided by the Báb. This, along with their teaching of the Cause, provoked a public commotion. [Bab78; DB144-145; BBRSM16]

The governor's punishment was particularly cruel. He commanded that the beards of both Quddús and Mullá Sádiq be burned, their noses pierced and that a cord should be passed which and used to led them through the city. The men were then beaten. Mullá Sádiq was a frail man of about 50 years but in spite of this took some 900 strokes and still remained calm and serene. When questioned later he said the first seven lashes were severely painful but then he became indifferent to the rest. It was as though the strokes were not being applied to his own body. [DB146-148]

Note: Bab78 says that Mullá Abú-Tálib was not among the group. DB145 says that only Mulla Husayn and Mulla Sádiq were arrested.

The London Times of November 1st and November 19, 1845 reported that this took place on the 23rd of June. [Bab76, BBR1p69, 82]

Upon departing Shíráz Quddús made his way to Kirmán to interview Hájí Mírzá Karím Khán. The ambitious and seditious Karím Khán remained unconvinced buy Quddús had earned an ally in his host during his stay in Kirmán, Hájí Siyyid Javád, someone he had known from his day in Karbilá. From Kirmán Quddús travelled to Yazd and then to Ardikán, Náyin, Ardistán, Isfáhán, Káshán, Qum and to Tihrán. There he met with Bahá'u'lláh and after which proceeded to Mázindarán and to his native town of Bárfurúsh where he lived in the home of his father for two years.
[DB180-183]

Mullá Sádiq travelled to Yazd with the intention of spreading news of the Cause among the 'ulamás of that province. There they encountered opposition from Hájí Mírzá Karím Khán.
[DB180, 183-187]

Mullá Sádiq and Mullá Yúsuf-i-Ardibílí moved on to Kirmán where they received the same treatment then they travelled to Khurásán
{DB187-188]

After expelling Mullá Husayn and Mullá Sádiq the governor of Fárs, Hasayn Khán ordered that the Báb, the instigator of the commotion, be arrested and brought to Shíráz. [B84; BW18:380; DB148–50; GPB11]

At Dálakí, some 40 miles northeast of the Búshíhr, the Báb met the soldiers of the governor of Fárs who had been sent to arrest Him. He was escorted to Shíráz. [Bab84, 105; BBR170; BBRSM216; DB148–9; GPB11; TN6, SBBH1pxxv111]

Karím Khán wrote a number of refutations of the Báb. The first, Isháqu'l-Bátil (The Crushing of Falsehood) was published in July. This caused some Bábís to dissociate themselves from Shaykhism. [BBRSM17–18]

Note: Other estimates for the time of His arrival in Shíráz are from about the 8th to 16th of August based on the fact that Husayn Khán ordered His arrest after the beating of Mullá Sádiq and Quddús. "According to A. L. M. Nicolas’ “Siyyid ‘Alí-Muhammad dit le Báb” (footnote 175, p. 225), this meeting took place on August 6, 1845 A.D." [DB146n2]

Bab105 says it must have taken the Báb another week at least to reach Shíráz;

SBBH1:24 says He arrived in Shíráz in early July.

Upon arrival in Shíráz the Báb was taken to the governor who publicly interrogated Him, rebuked Him and ordered his attendant to strike Him across the face. He was struck such a violent blow that His turban fell to the ground. Due to the intervention of Shay Abú-Turáb, the head ímam of the region He was released into the custody of His maternal uncle Hájí Mírzá Siyyid `Alí. [Bab85–9; BBRSM216; DB150–1; GPB11]

Note: DB155 states that after He was released and "regained His home" He was able to celebrate Naw-Rúz that fell on 10 Rabí'u'l-Avval, 1261 (19 March, 1945). This is an error. GPB11 says He was able to "celebrate the Naw-Rúz of that and the succeeding year in an atmosphere of relative tranquillity in the company of His mother, His wife and His uncle.'' This too appears to be in error. If He left Shíráz in September of 1846 He would not have been present In March of 1847.

Three of the divines of Shíráz passed a verdict of death upon The Báb. But for the intercession of Zahrá Bagum, the sister of the wife of The Báb, Khadíjih-Bagum, the mother of The Báb, Fátimih Bagum, with Shay Abú-Turáb, the Imám-Jum'ih of Shíráz, the Báb would have been executed. [LTDT12]

The Báb was released to the custody of His uncle, Hájí Mírzá Siyyid 'Alí. [DB151, LTDT13]

Báb was asked by Mírzá Abu'l-Qásim to attend a Friday gathering at the Mosque of Vakíl to appease the hostility and the curiosity of some of the residents of Shíráz and to clarify His position. The exact date of His attendance is unknown. He made a public pronouncement that He was neither the representative of the Hidden Imám nor the gate to him, that is, His station was higher. Many of those who witnessed His address became partisans. [Bab94–8; DB153–157]

see DB152 for pictures of the above mosque.

This time has been described by Shoghi Effendi as the `most fecund period' of the Báb's ministry. It marks the birth of the Bábí community. [Bab89–90]

A considerable number of the Báb's followers congregated in Isfahan. Upon hearing the news of the confinement of the Báb, Mullá Husayn and his companions, his brother and nephew, left Isfahán where they have been awaiting further instructions. They travelled to Shíráz in disguise. Mullá Husayn was able to meet secretly with the Báb several times in the house of His uncle. The Báb sent word to the remainder of His followers in Isfahán to leave and to travel to Shíráz in small, inconspicuous numbers. Among those gathered were some who were jealous of Múllá Husayn and the attention he received from the Báb. They threw their lot in with the detractors and were eventually expelled from the city for the unrest they caused. [DB160-162; Bab102–3; MH128–9]

After a time the presence of Mullá Husayn in Shíráz threatened to cause civil unrest. The Báb instructed him to go to Khurásán via Yazd and Kirmán and told the rest of the companions to return to Isfahán. He retained Mullá 'Abdu'l-Karím to transcribe His Writings. [Bab90, 102–3; DB170; MH130]

The Sháh sent one of the most learned men in Persia, Siyyid Yahyáy-i-Dárábí, surnamed Vahíd, to investigate the claims of the Báb. He became an adherent of the Cause of the Báb. To him He revealed some 2,000 verses at one sitting of five hours and among the the Surih of Kawthar. Vahíd and 'Abdu'l-Karím spent three days and three nights transcribing this Tablet. As a result of his conversion most of the inhabitants of the town of Nayríz later became Bábís. [Bab90–4; BBD216; BBRSM41; CH21; DB171–7; GPB11–12; TN7–8] iiiii

Another learned scholar, Muhammad-`Alíy-i-Zanjání, surnamed Hujjat, became a believer after reading only one page of the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá'. Several thousand of his fellow townspeople in Zanján became Bábís. [Bab100–2; BBD111; BBRSM16; GPB12; DB177-179]

Mírzá Ahmad-i-Azghandí, yet another learned man, who had compiled traditions and prophecies concerning the expected Revelation, became a believer as well. [GPB12–13]

The Times of London carried an item on the arrest and torture of Quddús, Mullá Sádiq-i-Khurásání, Mullá `Alí-Akbar-i-Ardistání and Mullá Abú-Tálib in Shíráz in June. This was the first known printed reference to the Revelation. A similar article was reprinted on 19 November. [B76–7; BBR4, 69]

The birth of Bahíyyih Khánum, the Greatest Holy Leaf, eldest daughter of Bahá'u'lláh and Navváb, and sister of `Abdu'l-Bahá, in Tihrán. She was later designated by Shoghi Effendi `the outstanding heroine of the Bahá'í Dispensation'. [BBD42; GPB108]

The Báb bequeathed all His possessions to His mother and His wife and revealed a special prayer for His wife to help her in times of sorrow. He told His wife of His impending martyrdom. He moved to the house of His uncle Hájí Mírzá Siyyid `Alí. He told the Bábís in Shíráz to go to Isfahán. [GPB14; KB21–2; TB103–5, LTDT13; DB190-192]

The Chief Constable, 'Abdu'l-Hamíd Khán, was instructed by order of the governor, Hasayn Khán, to break into the house of Hájí Mírzá Siyyid 'Alí where the Báb had been confined and to arrest Him. He and a follower were taken away along with His books and Writings. It was widely rumoured that He would be executed. He was allowed to return some time later. [LTDT14]

The governor, Husayn Khán, threatened by the Báb's rising popularity, ordered His arrest. The chief constable, `Abdu'l-Hamíd Khán, took the Báb into custody and escorted Him to the governor's home but found it abandoned. He took the Báb to his own home where he learned that a cholera epidemic had swept the city and that his sons have been stricken. At the chief constable's insistence the Báb cureed the boys by requesting they drink some of the water with which He had washed His own face. `Abdu'l-Hamíd resigned his post and begged the governor to release the Báb who agreed on condition the Báb leave Shíráz. The incident proved to be Husayn Khán's undoing: the Sháh dismisseed him from office shortly after. [B104–5; BBRSM55; DB194–7; GPB13; TN9]

On His approach to Isfahan the Báb wrote to Manúchihr Khán, the governor-general of Isfahán, and asked him where He should take shelter. The governor requested that Siyyid Muhammad, the Imám-Jum`ih of Isfahán, accommodate Him. During His stay of 40 days the Báb impresseed His host as well as many of the clerics. [Bab109–10, 13; DB199–202, 208]

See Bab108–9 for information on Manúchihr Khán.

It was during His six-month stay in Isfahán that the Báb took a second wife, Fátimih, the sister of a Bábí from that city. [RB1:249]

The Sháh had already instructed the governor, Manúchihr Khán to send the Báb to Tihrán. The Imám-Jum'ih, knowing that about seventy of the leading clerics of the city had signed His death warrant, he, himself refused to endorse it and fearing for the safety of the Báb, devised a scheme to have the Báb escorted from Isfahán but then secretly returned to the governor's residence. The Báb remained there for four months with only three of His followers apprised of His whereabouts. These four months have been described as having been the calmest in His Ministry. [Bab113–16; DB209–211, 213; TN9–11]

The governor offered all of his resources to try to win the Sháh over to His Cause but the Báb declined his offer saying that the Cause will triumph through the `poor and lowly'. [Bab115–16; DB212–213]

The passing of Manúchihr Khán. His death had been predicted by the Báb 87 days earlier. The governor had made the Báb the beneficiary of his vast holdings, estimated to be 40 million francs, but his nephew Gurgín Khán appropriated everything after his death. [Bab116; DB212Note1, 213–214]

Before the death of Manúchihr Khán the Báb instructed His followers to disperse throughout Káshán, Qum and Tihrán. [B115; DB213–14] Gurgín Khán, in his role as the new governor, informed the Sháh that the Báb wss in Isfahán and had been sheltered by Manúchihr Khán. The Sháh ordered that the Báb be taken to Tihrán incognito. The Báb, escorted by Nusayrí horsemen, set out for Tihrán soon after midnight. [Bab116, 118; DB215–116; TN11]

The Báb and His escort arrived at the fortress of Kinár-Gird, 28 miles from Tihrán. Muhammad Big, the head of the escort, received a message from Hájí Mírzá Áqásí, the prime minister, telling him to take the Báb to Kulayn to await further instructions. [B119; DB225–6; GPB16]

Táhirih's activities in Iraq so alarm some Bábís of Kázimayn that they agitated against her. Siyyid `Alí Bishr wrote to the Báb in Máh-Kú on their behalf. The Báb replied praising Táhirih, causing the Kázimayn Bábís to withdraw from the Faith. [B 163]

Among those Táhirih met in Baghdád was Hakím Masíh, a Jewish doctor who years later becomes the first Bahá'í of Jewish background. [B165]

Táhirih was sent back to Persia by Najíb Páshá. She was accompanied by a number of Bábís; they made a number of stops along the way, enrolling supporters for the Cause of the Báb. [B163–4; BBRSM216]

Ma'ani says Táhirih left Baghdád early in 1847.

In Kirand 1,200 people are reported to have volunteered to follow her. [B164 DB272; TN20]

B164 says the number is 12,000; DB272 says it was 1,200.

In Kirmánsháh she was respectfully received by the `ulamá. [B164; DB272]

Táhirih arrived in Hamadán. Her father had sent her brothers here to persuade her to return to her native city of Qazvín. She agreed on condition that she may remain in Hamadán long enough to tell people about the Báb. [B165; DB273]

The Báb received a courteous message from the Sháh, who, on the advice of his prime minister, Hájí Mírzá Áqásí, assigned Him to the fortress of Máh-Kú in the province of Ádharbáyján. The Báb was taken to Máh-Kú via Tabríz. [B121–2, 124; DB229–32; GPB16; TN11–12]

The Báb received a letter and gifts from Bahá'u'lláh in Tihrán delivered to His Hands by Mulla Muhammad-Mihdiy-i-Kandi. The letter cheered His heart, He had been despondent since His arrest and departure from Shíráz. [B120; DB227; GPB678]

The Báb sent a letter to the Sháh requesting an audience. [B121; DB229; TN11]

Some accounts maintain that the prime minister intervened in the correspondence between the Báb and the Sháh. En route to Tabríz the Báb wrote to various people, including the Grand Vizier, the father and uncle of Táhirih, and Hájí Sulaymán Khán. Hujjat learned of this last letter and sent a message to the Bábís of Zanján to rescue the Báb. The Báb declined their assistance. [B124–5; DB235–6]

See B126 for an account of the Báb's demonstration to His guards that He could have escaped had He so wished.

The Báb arrived in Tabríz en route to Máh-Kú and was handed over to the officials of Nasir al-Din Mirza, to be imprisoned for forty days in the citadel of Tabriz, called the Ark. [BBR76; Connections by Vincent Flannery]
He was well received by the general populace. He spent His time in seclusion, being allowed only two visitors. [B127–8; DB237–40; GPB18; TN12]

"A tumultuous concourse of people had gathered to witness His entry into the city … desirous of ascertaining the veracity of the wild reports that were current about Him … the acclamations of the multitude resounded on every side… Such was the clamour that a crier was ordered to warn the population of the danger that awaited those who ventured to seek His presence?" [DB237]

The people of Máh-Kú show markeded hostility to the Báb on His arrival. Later they were won over by His gentle manners and His love. They congregated at the foot of the mountain hoping to catch a glimpse of Him. [B129; DB244–5]

At the beginning of the Báb's incarceration the warden `Alí Khán kept the Báb strictly confined and allowed no visitors. He had a vision of the Báb engaged in prayer outside of the prison gates, knowing that the Báb is inside. He became humble and permitted the Bábís to visit the Báb. [B129–31; DB245–8]

The winter the Báb spent in Máh-Kú was exceptionally cold. [DB252]

Many of the Báb's writings were revealed in this period. [GPB24–5]

It was probably at this time that He addressed all the divines in Persia and Najaf and Karbalá, detailing the errors committed by each one of them. [GPB24]

He revealed nine commentaries on the whole of the Qur'an, the fate of which is unknown. [DB31; GPB24]

He revealed the "Mother Book" of the Bábí Revelation, the Persian Bayán, containing the laws and precepts of the new Revelation in some 8,000 verses. It is primarily a eulogy of the Promised One. [BBD44–5; BBRSM32; BW12:91 GPB24–5; ESW165; SWB102, 159] It is possible that the latter part of the Persian Bayán was revealed while He was confined in Chihríq.

The Báb began the composition of the `smaller and less weighty' Arabic Bayán. [B132; BBD45; GPB25]

He stated in the Bayán that, to date, He had revealed some 500,000 verses, 100,000 of which had been circulated. [BBRSM32, GPB22]

In the Dalá'il-i-Sab'ih (Seven Proofs) the Báb assigned blame to the seven powerful sovereigns then ruling the world and censured the conduct of the Christian divines who, had they recognized Muhammad, would have been followed by the greater part of their co-religionists. [BBD63; BW12:96; GPB26]

The Báb wrote His `most detailed and illuminating' Tablet to Muhammad Sháh. [GPB26]

On her departure from Hamadán Táhirih asked most of the Arab Bábís travelling with her to return to Iraq. [B165; DB273]

Upon arriving in Qazvín, Táhirih refused her estranged husband's attempts at reconciliation and lived with her father. Her father-in-law Hájí Mullá Taqí, felt insulted and denounced the Shaykhís and Bábís. [B166; DB2736]

Táhirih was accused of instigating the assassination of her uncle, Muhammad Taqí Baraghání, and was confined to her father's house while about 30 Bábís were arrested. Four, including the assassin, were taken to Tihrán and held in the house of Khusraw Khán. [BKG41; BW18:380; DB276–8]

Bahá'u'lláh, who was living in Tihrán, visited the detainees and gave them money. [BKG41; DB278–9; GPB68]

Mullá `Abdu'lláh confessed to the murder of Hájí Mullá Muhammad Taqí and was helped to escape. [BKG41–2; DB278]

See BKG42 for why Bahá'u'lláh was thought to have engineered his escape. Bahá'u'lláh was imprisoned for a few days for having assisted in Mullá `Abdu'lláh's escape.

This was Bahá'u'lláh's first imprisonment. [BKG41; BW18:380; DB585]

Shaykh Salib-i-Karímí, one of the imprisoned Bábís, was publicly executed in Tihrán.

He was the first to suffer martyrdom on Persian soil. His remains were interred in the courtyard of the shrine of the Imám-Zádih Zayd in Tihrán. [B166; BW18:380; DB280]

The remaining captives were returned to Qazvín. Hájí Asadu'lláh-i-Farhádí was secretly put to death in prison. Mullá Táhir-i-Shírází and Mullá Ibrahím-i-Maballátí were also put to death. [B166; BW18:380; DB280–3]

DB280–3 says `the rest of' the detainees were put to death by the relatives of Hájí Mullá Muhammad Taqí.

Bahá'u'lláh set out from Tihrán with 11 companions to reinforce the Bábís at Shaykh Tabarsí. Nine miles from the fort they were arrested and taken to the town of Ámul, where they were held prisoner in the home of the deputy governor. This was Bahá'u'lláh's second imprisonment. He intervened to spare His companions the bastinado and He alone received it.

When the governor returned to his home he ordered that Bahá'u'lláh and His companions be released and arranged a safe conduct for them to Tihrán. [B174; BBD44; BKG56–60; BW18:381; DB369–76; GPB68; SB7]

Bahá'u'lláh planed Táhirih's escape, giving the task to Mírzá Hádíy-i-Farhádí, the nephew of Hájí Asadu'lláh-i-Farhádí. Táhirih was rescued and escorted from Qazvín to Bahá'u'lláh's home in Tihrán. [B167; BKG42; DB284–5; MF199]

While she was in Bahá'u'lláh's home she was visited by Vahíd and challenged him by saying `Let deeds, not words, be our adorning!' [DB285; MF200]

After a few days Bahá'u'lláh sent Táhirih to a place of safety before sending her on to Khurásán. [DB286–7; GPB68]

Note: Ma'ani says this was the house of Mírzá Áqá Khán-i Núrí, who was then living in Káshán as an exile. His sister acted as Táhirih's hostess until she left for Badasht.

Mullá Husayn and his companion, walking from Mashhad, arrived at Máh-Kú on the eve of Naw-Rúz. The Báb met them at the gate and together they celebrated Naw-Rúz, the fourth after the declaration of the Báb. Mullá Husayn stayed the night at the fortress. He remained with the Báb for nine days. [B131; DB257, 262; MH138, 143]

MH137 says Mullá Husayn arrived in Tabríz on 21 March.

See DB255–7 for story of the dream of `Alí Khán, the prison warden, preceding the arrival of Mullá Husayn at Máh-Kú. From this time on the pilgrims were allowed unrestricted access to the Báb. [DB258]

Mullá Husayn departed for Mázindarán, setting out on foot as the Báb has directed. [DB260; MH144]

The Báb told him to visit the Bábís in Khuy, Urúmíyyih, Marághih, Mílán, Tabríz, Zanján, Qazvín and Tihrán before proceeding to Mázindarán. In Mázindarán he was to find `God's hidden treasure'. [DB260; MH144]

The Báb was removed from Máh-Kú. Prior to this He had communicated His higher claims to His followers.

Hájí Mírzá Áqásí was alarmed by the developments at Máh-Kú and ordered that the Báb be moved to Chihríq. [B131; DB259; GPB1920]

The Báb's presence in Máh-Kú, so close to the Russian frontier, was also a cause for concern for the Russian government. Prince Dolgorukov, the Russian Minister in Tihrán, asked that He be removed. It is likely that this request was made in 1847 but not carried out until this time. [B131; BBR72; TN13]

Quddús left Mashhad for Badasht. Mullá Husayn was prevented from attending. He was invited to stay in the camp of the soldiers garrisoned in the area to control a local revolt. The invitation amounted to a confinement but he was able to teach the soldiers while so confined. [BKG50; DB290; MH165–6]

MH160 says that it was at this time that the Báb wrote to all the believers in Persia and Iraq instructing them to go to the aid of Mullá Husayn and Quddús in the `Land of Khá (Khurásán). DB269ff implies this letter was written in 1845.

Bahá'u'lláh, who hosted and directed the event, rented three gardens, one for Quddús, another for Táhirih and the third for Himself. [B168; GPB31, 68; MF200]

The conference coincided with the removal of the Báb to Tabríz for interrogation in July. It was held near the village of Sháhrúd in Semnan province. [BBRSM23; DB292]

`The primary purpose of that gathering was to implement the revelation of the Bayán by a sudden, a complete and dramatic break with the past — with its order, its ecclesiasticism, its traditions, and ceremonials. The subsidiary purpose of the conference was to consider the means of emancipating the Báb from His cruel confinement in Chihríq.' [BBRSM23; BKG43; DB297–8; GPB31, 157]

From the beginning of His ministry the Báb had implicitly claimed some higher spiritual station than merely that of being the "bábu'l-imám" and in the early months of 1848 while still in prison in Mákú He put forward these claims to his companions. He proclaimed HImself to be the Imam Mahdi, the promised Q´'im (He who will arise), the inaugurator of the Resurrection and the abrogator of the Islamic holy law. [BBRSM23]

B167 says that the Bábís did not come to Badasht to make plans to rescue the Báb.
>LI>It was attended by 81 believers and lasts 22 days. [BKG43–4, 46; DB292–3; GPB312]

Each day Bahá'u'lláh revealed a Tablet, and on each believer He conferred a new name. Each day an Islamic law was abrogated. Henceforth, when the Báb was addressing the believers, He used the new name that Bahá'u'lláh had bestowed upon them. [DB293; GPB32]

See BKG44–5, DB293 and MF201 for the story of the central event, Táhirih's confrontation with Quddús and removal of her veil.

After three months in Chihríq, the Báb was taken under escort to Tabríz for trial. [B137; BW18:380; TN14]

Just prior to His leaving, in June of 1848 He was seen in public discourse with His followers by a Russian student named Mochenin from St. Petersburg University. It is believed that he and Dr William Cormick were the only Westerners to have seen the Báb. [BBR75]

En route He stopped in Urúmíyyih for ten days where the governor, Malik-Qásim Mírzá, tested the Báb by offering Him an unruly horse to ride to the public bath. The horse remained docile under the Bab's control and was the same when He came out and rode him on the return. The local people were certain that they had witnessed a miracle and broke into the bath to procure His bath water. [B138; BBR74; DB309–11, EB86-87]

A sketch of the Báb was made by local artist Aqa Bala Bayg from which he made a full-scale black and white portrait. Later Bahá'u'lláh directed that Aqa Bala Bayg make two copies of the portrait in water colour. The sketch and one of the water colours are now in the International Archives. [EB87; B138–9, Juhúrú'l-Haqq by Asadu'lláh Fádil-i-Mázindarání p.48 quoted in World Order Winter 1974-95 p41]

Quddús was arrested and taken to Sárí where he was placed under house arrest in the home of Mírzá Muhammad-Taqí, a leading cleric. [B171; BKG50; DB300]

Táhirih was arrested and is later taken to Tihrán where she is held in the home of Mahmúd Khán, the Kalántar of Tihrán, until her martyrdom in August 1852.

Mullá Husayn left the army camp near Mashhad where he had been a guest of a brother of the Sháh. He planned to make a pilgrimage to Karbalá. While making preparations for the journey he received a Tablet from the Báb instructing him to go to Mázindarán to help Quddús, carrying a Black Standard before him. He was also instructed to wear the Báb's own green turban and to take the new name Siyyid `Alí. [B171; BKG50; DB324; MH174]

The Women's Rights Convention was held in the Wesleyan Chapel at Seneca Falls, NY. The principle organizer was Lucretia Mott, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as its driving intellect. A significant role was played by an African-American man, an abolitionist and a recently freed slave, Frederick Douglass. The convention adopted a Declaration of Rights and Sentiments that consisted of 11 resolutions including the right for women to vote. The signatories were the 68 women and 32 men in attendance. The right for women to vote became part of the United States Constitution in 1920. [The Calling: Tahirih of Persia and her American Contemporaries p114-160, "Seneca Falls First Woman's Rights Convention of 1848: The Sacred Rites of the Nation"
by Bradford W. Miller (Journal of Bahá'í Studies, 8.3, 1998)]

This conference has been compared to the Conference of Badasht with respect to the emancipation of women and entrenched prejudices.

The Báb arrived in Tabríz and was brought before a panel of which the 17-year-old Crown Prince Násiri'd-Dín Mírzá was the president. The Báb publicly madw His claim that He was the Qá'im. This claim had also been announced to those gathered at Badasht. [B140–7; BBR157; BBRSM23, 216; BW18:380; DB314–20; GPB21–2; TN14]

This constituted the formal declaration of His mission. [GPB22]

The purpose of the public forum was to force the Báb to recant His views; instead He took control of the hearing and embarrassed the clergy. After considerable argument and discussion, they decided He was devoid of reason. [GPB22]

The Báb was bastinadoed. [B145; BBD44; DB320; GPB22; TN14–15] This is the first formal punishment He received. [BBRSM20]

He was first attended by an Irish physician, Dr William Cormick, to ascertain His sanity and later to treat Him for a blow to the face that occurred during the bastinado. Cormick is the only Westerner to have met and conversed with Him. [B145; BBR74–5, 497–8 DBXXXIL–XXXIII]

The clergy issued a fatwa or legal pronouncement against the Báb condemning Him to death for heresy, but to no purpose as the civil authorities were unwilling to take action against Him. [BBRSM19–20]

For an account of the life of Dr. William Cormick see Connections by Brendan McNamara.

He ruled from 1848 to 1 May 1896 when he was assassinated on the eve of his jubilee. [BBD168; BBR482]

The first four years of his reign were marked by the `fiercest and bloodiest of the persecutions of the religion of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh'. During the whole of his reign there were `sporadic persecutions and, in at least some cases, he himself was directly responsible for the death of the martyrs'. [BBR157]

For the first time in the Faith's history the civil and ecclesiastical powers banded together in a systematic campaign against it, one that was to `culminate in the horrors experienced by Bahá'u'lláh in the Síyáh-Chál' and `His subsequent banishment to Iraq'. [GPB37]

See BBRSM25 for an explanation of why the Bábí religion was a challenge to the secular regime.

See SB86 for a reason for Násiri'd-Dín Sháh's cruelty towards the Bábís and Bahá'ís.

See RB3:201 for an explanation of his lengthy reign.

He chose as his prime minister Mírzá Taqí Khán-i-Faráhání, known as a great reformer and a founder of modern Iran. [BBD221; BBR160]

It was not until the spring of 1849 that the new regime was in firm control.

His reform antagonized many and a coalition was formed against him. One of the most active proponents was the queen mother. She convinced the Shah that the prime minister wanted his throne. In October of 1851 the shah dismissed him and exiled him to Kashan where he was murdered on the shah's orders.

Mullá Husayn and his company from Mashhad arrived near Bárfurúsh. The Sa`ídu'l-`Ulamá, threatened by their presence, stirred up the townspeople, who went out to meet them. Some three or four miles from the city they clashed and seven of Mullá Husayn's companions were killed. [B172; BW18:381; DB329–31; MH192–3]

MH188 says that the journey from Mashhad had taken 83 days.

In the ensuing battle, the townspeople were worsted. They begged for peace and a truce was agreed. [B172; DB336; MH197]

It was during this skirmish that Mullá Husayn cut a man, a musket and a tree with one blow from his sword. [B172; DB 330–1; MH193]

Mullá Husayn and his companions took shelter in a caravanserai. Three young men in succession mounted the roof to raise the call to prayer were each met with a bullet and killed. Mullá Husayn gaves the command to attack the townspeople, who were again routed. [BW18:381; DB337–8; MH201–5]

Mullá Husayn and his companions were offered safe passage by the town's leaders if they would leave Bárfurúsh. They agreed but were attacked by their escort, Khusraw-i-Qádí-Kalá'í and his hundred men. [B172; DB338–42; MH206–9]

The Bábís, led by Quddús, made a mounted attack on the army. All of the officers were killed including `Abdu'lláh Khán. A number of soldiers were drowned as they retreated into the Tálár River. About 430 soldiers were killed but no Bábís; one Bábí is wounded. [BW18:381; DB361–3; MH243–6]

Quddús and Mullá Husayn led a night attack on the encamped army. Two hundred and two Bábís dispersed the camp. [BW18:381; BD365; MH254]

DB 368 says this occurred on 21 December 1848.

Mihdí-Qulí Mírzá fled barefoot. [DB366]

Mullá Husayn's sword was broken in the attack and he used that of Quddús. His companions brought him the abandoned sword of Mihdí-Qulí Mírzá. [DB367; MH257]

At daybreak the soldiers mounted a counter-attack. [DB367; MH258–9]

In this encounter Quddús was wounded in the mouth and was rescued by Mullá Husayn who dispersed the enemy using the sword of Mihdí-Qulí Mírzá in one hand and that of Quddús in the other. [B174; DB367; MH258–9]

Soon after midnight, Mullá Husayn led a charge of 313 men that again routed the king's army. He was struck in the chest by a bullet and died. His body was carried back to the fort and buried. Ninety other Bábís were also wounded, about 40 of whom died. [B174; BW18:381; DB379–82; MH266–70]

Mullá Husayn was 36 years old at the time of his death. [DB383; MH272]

See DB382–3 for an account of his life.

See DB415–16 for an account of the heroics of Mullá Husayn.

See DB381–2 and MH265–70 for an account of the death and burial of Mullá Husayn.

See SDH13–14 for an account of his death by Mihdí-Qulí Mírzá.

Seventy–two of the original 313 inhabitants of the fort had been martyred by this time. [DB382]

Mihdí-Qulí Mírzá sent an emissary to the fort to invite two representatives to his camp to conduct negotiations. On the strength of assurances written on a Qur'án, Quddús left the fort and entered the Prince's camp. [B175; BW18:381; DB399–400]

The end of the siege of the fort at Shaykh Tabarsí. Two hundred and two Bábís were tricked into leaving the shrine. [BW18:381]

DB400 says they accompanied Quddús.

They were not conducted to their homes as promised but were set upon by the Prince's soldiers. Some are killed, others sold into slavery. The fortifications around the shrine were razed to the ground. [DB403–4; MH283]

See DB414–29 for a list of the martyrs of Tabarsí.

Among those who gave their lives at Fort Tabarsi was Mullá Ja'far, the sifter of wheat and the first to embrace the Faith in Isfahan. [AY58]

The Báb, in prison in the castle of Chihríq, learned of the massacre at Shaykh Tabarsí and the martyrdom of Quddús. He was so overcome with grief that He was unable to write or dictate for a period of five or six months. [DB411, 430]

The Bábi group in Tehran had been infiltrated by an informer who betrayed about fifty of its members to the authorities. Fearing a plot the government had seven of the leading members of the group executed including the Báb's uncle and guardian. These men were of high social status, three merchants, two prominent ulama, a Sufi spiritual guide and a government official. [BBRSM28]

Martyrdom of the Seven Martyrs of Tihrán. Seven of the Bábís were executed in Tihrán on the false charge of having plotted to kill the Grand Vizier. [B182–5; BBD225; BBR100–5; BBRSM28, 216; BKG71; BW18:381; DB462; GPB47–8]

See BBD225, BBR100 and BW18:381 for a list of their names.

Three of the victims were so eager to be martyrs that they asked the executioner if they could be the first to die. [B183; BBD225; GPB47]

Their bodies were left in the public square for three days. [BBD225; GPB47]

See GPB478 for the chief features of the episode.

The martyrs are the ‘Seven Goats' referred to in Islamic traditions that were to ‘walk in front' of the promised Qá'im. [GPB47–8]

See B206–7 and BBR100–5 for the accounts of the event and responses of Prince Dolgorukov and Lt-Col Sheil.

The start of the Zanján upheaval. Hujjat had converted a sizeable proportion of the town and tension mounted between the Bábís and the ‘ulamá. [DB540–1, 527–81; B185–8, 209–13; BBD111, 245; BBR114–26; BBRSM28, 216; GPB44–5; TN245]

Vahíd traveled from Yazd towards Shíráz, eventually coming to Nayríz. He went to the Mosque of Jum‘ih where he ascended the pulpit and proclaimed the Cause of God. The Governor moved against him and Vahíd ordered his companions to occupy the fort of Khájih. The siege that followed lasted a month. [B178, 204–5; BBR109–13; BW18:381]

Mírzá Taqí Khán was determined to execute the Báb to halt the progress of His religion. On his orders the Báb was taken from Chihríq to Tabríz. [B152; BBR76–7; GPB51]

His guard took Him on a circuitous, much longer route through Urúmíyyih where His presence was noted by American missionaries. [B152; BBR73, 76]

Forty days before the Báb was to leave Chihríq He collected all His documents, Tablets, pen cases, seals, His agate rings, and His last Tablets to Mírzá 'Abdu'l-Karím Qazvíní, and put them in a coffer. He entrusted it to Mullá Báqir, one of the Letters of the Living, and instructed him to deliver it to His secretary. In the event that something should happen to Himself, the secretary was to proceed to Tihrán to deliver the box to ‘Jináb-i-Bahá', that is, Bahá'u'lláh. In His last Tablets, Mírzá Husayn-'Alí Núrí was referred to again and again as "Him Whom God shall make Manifest" also, He was referred to as "Bahá'u'lláh". [CH49; B151–2; DB504–5; TN25–6]

When the box was opened they found a Tablet in the form of a pentacle with 500 verses consisting of derivatives of the word ‘Bahá'. [B151–2; DB504–5; TN25–6]

At Nayríz, Vahíd received a message from the Governor offering a truce and a promise of safety written on the Qur'án. He, together with five attendants, leave the fortress and were received into the camp of his enemies where he was entertained with great ceremony for three days. [B180–1; BW18:381]

The Báb, divested of His turban and sash, was taken on foot to the barracks in Tabríz. Mírzá Muhammad-‘Alíy-i-Zunúzí, Anís, threw himself at the feet of the Báb and asked to go with Him. [B153; DB507]

That night the Báb asked that one of His companions kill Him, rather than let Him die at the hands of His enemies. Anís offered to do this but was restrained by the others. The Báb promised that Anís will be martyred with Him. [B154–5; DB507–8]

In the morning the Báb was taken to the homes of the leading clerics to obtain the death-warrants. [B155; DB508]

The warrants were already prepared. [B155–6; DB510]

Anís's stepfather tried to persuade him to change his mind. Anís's young son was also brought to ‘soften his heart' but Anís's resolve remained unshaken. [B156–7; DB509–10]

At noon the Báb and Mirza Muhammad-Ali Zunuzi, known as Anis were suspended on a wall in the square in front of the citadel of Tabríz in Sarbazkhaneh Square. They were shot by 750 soldiers in three ranks of 250 men in succession. [B157; DB512]

When the smoke cleared the Báb was gone and Anís was standing, unharmed, under the nail from which they were suspended. The Báb, also unhurt, was found back in his cell completing His dictation to His secretary. [B157–8; DB512–13]

See BBD200–1 and DB510–12, 514 for the story of Sám Khán, the Christian colonel of the Armenian regiment which was ordered to execute the Báb.

The Báb and Anís were suspended a second time. A new regiment, the Násirí, was found to undertake the execution. After the volleys, the bodies of the Báb and Anís were shattered and melded together. [B158; DB514]

See BBR77–82 for Western accounts of the event.

The face of the Báb was untouched. [B158]

At the moment the shots were fired, a gale sweeps the city, stirring up so much dust that the city remained in darkness from noon until night. [B158; DB515]

See CH239 and DH197 for the story of the phenomenon of the two sunsets.

During the night, the bodies were thrown onto the edge of the moat surrounding the city. Soldiers were posted to stand guard over them and, nearby; two Bábís, feigning madness, keep vigil. The bodies were removed and hidden under cover of darkness. [B159; TN27]

Muhammad Khán, the commander of the government forces at Zanján, tries to deceive Hujjat into surrender by drawing up a peace proposal. Hujjat, recalling Tabarsí and Nayríz, responds by sending children and old men to Muhammad Khán, who has them thrown into a dungeon. This signals the beginning of the final month-long siege at Zanján. [B186–7; DB564–8]

Hujjat, wounded in the right arm by a bullet 19 days previously, succumbed to his wounds. With the death of Hujjat the Bábí resistance weakens. A general assault by the royal forces ends the siege. [B187; BBR122; BW18:382; DB573–4]

Attempt on the life of the Sháh. [BBR128; BBRSM:30; BKG74–5; DB599; ESW20; GPB62; TN2930]

See BKG74–5 for circumstances of the event.

See BKG76 for the fate of the perpetrators.

See BBR128–46 for reporting of the event in the West.

Ja‘far-Qulí Khán writes immediately to Bahá'u'lláh telling Him of the event and that the mother of the Sháh is denouncing Bahá'u'lláh as the ‘would-be murderer'. Ja‘far-Qulí Khán offers to hide Bahá'u'lláh. [BKG77; DB602]

"In the hecatomb of 1852-1853 the ranks of the Bábís were drastically thinned.
Most of the leading disciples were killed, only a few surviving in distant exile.
The next ten years were hopelessly dark. Within the Bábí community there was
much confusion and fear. It seemed at times that all the heroism, all the sacrifices,
had been in vain. Enemies gloated over the virtual extermination of what they
saw as a pernicious heretical sect. Sympathetic outsiders concluded that the movement
that had shown so much promise cracked under persecution and collapsed,
leaving behind only a glorious memory." [Varqá and Rúhu'lláh: Deathless in Martyrdom by Kazem Kazemzadeh, World Order, Winter 1974-75 p.29]

Bahá'u'lláh rode out towards the headquarters of the imperial army. At the time, He had been in ‘The Abode of the Birds’ (MurghMaḥallih), a garden which had been His summer residence. He stopped at Zargandih at the home of Mírzá Majíd Khán-i-Áhí, secretary to the Russian legation. [BKG77; DB603, AY235]

Bahá'u'lláh was invited to remain in this home. [DB603]

The Sháh was informed of Bahá'u'lláh's arrival and sent an officer to the legation to demand the delivery of Bahá'u'lláh into his hands. The Russian minister, Prince Dolgorukov, refused and suggested that Bahá'u'lláh be sent to the home of the Grand Vizier. [BKG77; DB603]

She was martyred in the Ílkhání garden, strangled with her own silk handkerchief which she had provided for the purpose. Her body was lowered into a well which was then filled with stones. [BBD220; DB622–8; GPB75]

Many Bábís are tortured and killed in the weeks following the attempt on the life of the Sháh. [BKG84]

See BBR171 for the story of Mahmud Khán, the Kalántar of Tihrán, and his role in the arrest and execution of the Bábís.

See BKG84–93 for a description of the tortures and executions of Bábís. Thirty–eight Bábís are martyred.

See BKG86–7 and DB616–21 for the torture and martyrdom of Sulaymán Khán. Holes are gouged in his body and nine lighted candles are inserted. He joyfully dances to the place of his execution. His body is hacked in two, each half is then suspended on either side of the gate.

The persecutions are so severe that the community is nearly annihilated. The Bábí remnant virtually disappears from view until the 1870s. [BBRSM:30; EB269]

See AB10–11, BBD211–12, BKG79–83, CH41–2, DB631–3, GPB109 and RB1:9 for a description of the prison and the conditions suffered by the prisoners.

No food or drink was given to Bahá'u'lláh for three days and nights. [DB608]

Bahá'u'lláh remained in the prison for four months. [CH41; ESW20, 77; GPB104; TN31]

"Upon Our arrival We were first conducted along a pitch-black corridor, from whence We descended three steep flights of stairs to the place of confinement assigned to Us. The dungeon was wrapped in thick darkness, and Our fellow prisoners numbered nearly a hundred and fifty souls: thieves, assassins and highwaymen. Though crowded, it had no other outlet than the passage by which We entered. No pen can depict that place, nor any tongue describe its loathsome smell. Most of these men had neither clothes nor bedding to lie on. God alone knoweth what befell Us in that most foul-smelling and gloomy place!" [ESW20-21]

See CH42–3 for the effect of Bahá'u'lláh's imprisonment on His wife and children. Friends and and even family were afraid to be associated with His immediate family. During this period Mírzá Músá helped the family surreptitiously and Mírzá Yúsif, who was married to Bahá'u'lláh's cousin, a Russian citizen and a friend of the Russian Consul, was less afraid of repercussions for his support of them.

They were also assisted by Isfandíyár, the family's black servant that had been emancipated in 1839 on the order of Bahá'u'lláh. This man's life was in great danger. At one time they had 150 policemen looking for him but he managed to evade capture. They thought that if they questioned (tortured) Isfandíyár he would reveal Bahá'u'lláh's nefarious plots. [SoW Vol IX April 28, 1918 p38-39]

Another who helped the family was Mírzá Muhammad Tabrizi who rented a house for them in Sangelak. [PG122]

‘Abdu'l-Bahá, as a child of eight, was attacked in the street of Tihrán. [DB616]

See AB11–12, RB1:9 for ‘Abdu'l-Bahá's account of His visit to His father.

Bahá'u'lláh's properties were plundered. [CH41; RB1:11]

See BBD4–5 and BKG94–8 for the story of ‘Abdu'l-Vahháb-i-Shírází who was martyred while being held in the Síyáh-Chál.

See BBD190, 200 and ESW77 about the two chains with which Bahá'u'lláh was burdened while in the Síyáh-Chál. Five other Bábís were chained to Him day and night. [CH41]

Bahá'u'lláh had some 30 or 40 companions. [BBIC:6, CH41]

An attempt was made to poison Him. The attempt failed but His health was impaired for years following. [BBIC:6; BKG99–100, GPB72]

Bahá'u'lláh's half-brother Mírzá Yahyá fled to Tákur and went into hiding. He eventually went to Baghdád. [BKG90, 107, CH41]

Bahá'u'lláh has a vision of the Maiden, who announces to Him that He is the Manifestation of God for this Age. [BBD142–3, 212; BKG823 ESW11–12, 21 GPB101–2; KAN62]

This experience compares to the episode of Moses and the Burning Bush, Zoroaster and the Seven Visions, Buddha under the Bodhi tree, the descent of the Dove upon Jesus and the voice of Gabriel commanding Muhammad to ‘cry in the name of thy Lord'. [GPB93, 101]

The Báb repeatedly gave the year nine as the date of the appearance of ‘Him Whom God shall make manifest'. The Declaration of the Báb took place in AH 1260; year nine was therefore AH 1269, which began in the middle of October when Bahá'u'lláh had been in prison for about two months. [CB46–7]

Subsequently in His Writings Bahá’u’lláh declared that He was the "Promised One" of all religions, fulfilling the messianic prophecies found in world religions. He stated that being several messiahs converging one person were the spiritual, rather than material, fulfilment of the messianic and eschatological prophecies found in the literature of the major religions. His eschatological claims constitute six distinctive messianic identifications: from Judaism, the incarnation of the "Everlasting Father" from the Yuletide prophecy of Isaiah 9:6, the "Lord of Hosts"; from Christianity, the "Spirit of Truth" or Comforter predicted by Jesus in His farewell discourse of John 14-17 and the return of Christ "in the glory of the Father"; from Zoroastrianism, the return of Shah Bahram Varjavand, a Zoroastrian messiah predicted in various late Pahlavi texts; from Shi'a Islam the return of the Third Imam, Imam Husayn; from Sunni Islam, the return of Jesus, Isa; and from the Bábí religion, He whom God shall make manifest.

While Bahá’u’lláh did not explicitly state Himself to be either the Hindu or Buddhist messiah, He did so in principle through His writings. Later, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stated that Bahá’u’lláh was the Kalki avatar, who in the classical Hindu Vaishnavas tradition, is the tenth and final avatar (great incarnation) of Vishnu who will come to end The Age of Darkness and Destruction. Bahá’ís also believe that Bahá’u’lláh is the fulfilment of the prophecy of appearance of the Maitreya Buddha, who is a future Buddha who will eventually appear on Earth, achieve complete enlightenment, and teach the pure Dharma. Bahá’ís believe that the prophecy that Maitreya will usher in a new society of tolerance and love has been fulfilled by Bahá’u’lláh's teachings on world peace. [Bahaikipedia]

See P&M295-196(1969), 298-299(1987) where states, "...the First Call gone forth from His lips than the whole creation was revolutionized, and all that are in the heavens and all that are on earth were stirred to the depths". What was "the First Call"?. See GPB121, “These initial and impassioned outpourings of a Soul struggling to unburden itself, in the solitude of a self-imposed exile (many of them, alas lost to posterity) are, with the Tablet of Kullu’t-Tá’am and the poem entitled Rashh-i-‘Amá, revealed in Ṭihrán, the first fruits of His Divine Pen.”

The revelation of Rashh-i-Ama (Sprinkling from the Cloud of Unknowing) while in the Síyáh-Chál in Tihran. This tablet is considered to be among the first revealed by Bahá'u'lláh after being apprised that He was to be the Manifestation of God.

See P&M295-196(1969), 298-299(1987) where states, "...the First Call gone forth from His lips than the whole creation was revolutionized, and all that are in the heavens and all that are on earth were stirred to the depths". What was "the First Call"?. See GPB121, “These initial and impassioned outpourings of a Soul struggling to unburden itself, in the solitude of a self-imposed exile (many of them, alas lost to posterity) are, with the Tablet of Kullu’t-Tá’am and the poem entitled Rashh-i-‘Amá, revealed in Ṭihrán, the first fruits of His Divine Pen.”

See also RoB1p45-52 for information on "The First Emanations of the Supreme Pen". Taherzadeh explains that this tablet has great significance in Islamic prophecy where it is said that when the Promised One appears He will utter one word that will cause the people to flee HIm. Islamic prophecy also holds that the well-known saying, "I am He" will be fulfilled. In this tablet and many that were to follow, Bahá'u'lláh proclaims that "I am God".
Taherzadeh also states Bahá'u'lláh disclosed for the first time one of the unique features of His Revelation, namely, the advent of the "Day of God".
"In a language supremly beautiful and soul-stiring, He attributes these energies to Himself. His choice of words, and the beauty, power, depth and mystery of this poem...are such that they may well prove impossible to translate." [RoB1p45]

This was owing to: the efforts of the Russian Minister Prince Dolgorukov; the public confession of the would-be assassin; the testimony of competent tribunals; the efforts of Bahá'u'lláh's own kinsmen; and the sacrifices of those followers imprisoned with Him. [GPB104–5]

See CH43–4 for the role of the Russian Consul in securing His release. He invoked his full power as an envoy of Russia and called out the Sháh and his court for their barbaric behaviour.

See BKG101–2, CH44 and DB647–8 for the physical condition of Bahá'u'lláh upon release.

See BKG101, DB648–9 and GPB105 for the words of Bahá'u'lláh to Mírzá Áqá Khán upon His release.

The Russian minister invited Bahá'u'lláh to go to Russia but Bahá'u'lláh chose instead to go to Iraq. It may be that He refused the offer because He knew that acceptance of such help would have been misrepresented as having political implications. [BBIC:8; DB650]

Bahá'u'lláh and His family depart for Baghdád after a one month respite in the home of his half-brother Mírzá Ridá-Qulí. During the three-month journey Bahá'u'lláh is accompanied by His wife Navváb, (Who was six weeks from giving birth upon departure.) His eldest son ‘Abdu'l-Bahá (9), Bahíyyih Khánum (7) and two of His brothers, Mírzá Músá and Mírzá Muhammad-Qulí. Mírzá Mihdí (2), was very delicate and so was left behind with the grandmother of Àsíyih Khánum. They are escorted by an officer of the Persian imperial bodyguard and an official representing the Russian legation. [BKG102–5; GPB108]

CH44–5 says the family had ten days after Bahá'u'lláh's release to prepare for the journey to Iraq.

‘Never had the fortunes of the Faith proclaimed by the Báb sunk to a lower ebb'. [DB651]

This exile compares to the migration of Muhammad, the exodus of Moses and the banishment of Abraham. [GPB107–8]

See BKG104 and GPB108–9 for conditions on the journey.

Bahá'u'lláh's black servant, Isfandíyár, who had managed to evade capture during this dark period, after he had paid all the debts to various merchants, went to Mazandaran where he was engaged by the Governor. Years later when his master made a pilgrimage to Iraq Isfandíyár met Bahá'u'lláh and stated his preference to return to His service. Bahá'u'lláh said that he owed his master a debt of gratitude and could not leave his employ without his permission. It was not granted and Isfandíyár returned to Mazandaran and stayed with the Governor until his passing. [PUP428; SoW IX 28 April, 1918 p38-39]

Also see A Gift of Love Offered to the Greatest Holy Leaf (compiled and edited by Gloria Faizi, 1982), by Hand of the Cause Abu'l-Qasim Faizi, which includes a brief summary of the character of Isfandiyar and his services to the Holy Family on pages 14-16.

Some 600 female and 80 to 180 male Bábís are taken prisoner at Nayríz and marched to Shíráz, along with the heads of' some 180 martyrs. This fulfils an Islamic prophecy concerning the appearance of the Qá'im indicating that the heads of the followers would be used as gifts. [BW18:382; KI245]

Bahá'u'lláh sent a ring and cashmere shawl to His niece, Shahr-Bánú, the daughter of Mírzá Muhammad-Hasan, in Tihrán to ask for her hand in marriage to ‘Abdu'l-Bahá. Shahr-Bánú's uncle, acting in place of her dead father, refused to let her go to Iraq. [BKG342–3]

Several hundred Bahá'ís were arrested by Shaykh Muhammad-Báqir (later stigmatized as ‘the Wolf' by Bahá'u'lláh) and taken to Isfahán to be put to death. He was dissuaded from this plan by other ‘ulamá of Isfahán. Two of the prisoners were executed, 18 were sent to Tihrán and the remainder are sent back to Najafábád where they were severely beaten. Those sent to Tihrán were put in a dungeon but released after three months by the Sháh. Two of these were beaten then executed upon their return from Tihrán on the order of Shaykh Muhammad-Báqir. [BBD213; BBR268–9; BW18:382]

French diplomat Joseph Comte de Gobineau published Religions et les Philosophies dans l'Asie Centrale, over half of which is devoted to a study of the Bábí movement.

Gobineau's work was written when Mírzá Yahyá was still know as the nominal head of the Bábí Faith between 1855 and 1858 when Gobineau was First Secretary and Chargé d'Affaires of the French Legation. Two embassy employees during his time there were ardent supporters of Mírzá Yahyá, one of whom was his brother-in-law. (He served as the Ambassador from March 1862 until September, 1863.)

This work attracted a number of other European intellectuals, including E. G. Browne of Cambridge, who eventually became the most prolific western writer and researcher of the Bábi religion. [BBR17, MCS483; 500; 512]

Nabíl-i-A‘zam was dispatched to Iraq and Iran to inform the Bábís of the advent of Bahá'u'lláh. He was further instructed to perform the rites of pilgrimage on Bahá'u'lláh's behalf in the House of the Báb and the Most Great House in Baghdad. [BKG250; EB224; GPB176–7]

For details of his mission see EB224–7.

On hearing Nabíl's message, the wife of the Báb, Khadíjih Khánum, immediately recognized the station of Bahá'u'lláh. [EB225]

Nabil was the first Bahá'í to perform pilgrimage to the house of the Báb in Shiraz in fall 1866, in accordance with the rites prescribed in the Surat al-ḥajj revealed by Bahá'u'lláh. He also went to Baghdad and performed the pilgrimage to the House of Bahá'u'lláh in spring 1867, according to another sura, Surat al-damm written by Bahá'u'lláh for that purpose. Nabil’s pilgrimage to those two houses marked the inception of pilgrimage laws ordained by Bahá'u'lláh later in his Kitāb-i-Aqdas. For the rites of these two pilgrimages performed by Nabíl see SA113–15. [GPB176-177, “Nabil-e aʿzam Zaranadi, Mollā Mohammad,” by Vahid Rafati, Encyclopædia Iranica, DB434-435]

Bahá'u'lláh addressed a Tablet to Mullá ‘Alí-Akbar-i-Shahmírzádí and Jamál-i-Burújirdí in Tihrán instructing them to transfer secretly the remains of the Báb from the Imám-Zádih Ma‘súm, where they were concealed, to some other place of safety. [GPB177]

In this period the extent of the Faith was enlarged with expansion in the Caucasus, the establishment of the first Egyptian centre and the establishment of the Faith in Syria. [GPB176]

While Nabil was in Khorasan in spring 1866, at his suggestion, the greeting Alláh-u-Abhá (God is the most Glorious) was adopted by the followers of Bahá'u'lláh, replacing the old salutation of Allāho Akbar (God is the Greatest), which was common among the Bábis. This was a significant action that gave group identity to the Bahá'ís and was a sign of their independence from the Bábís and the Azális, a Bábí faction that considered Mírzá Yaḥyā Ṣobḥ-e Azál as the legitimate successor to the Báb. The greeting Alláh-u-Abhá superseded the Islamic salutation and was simultaneously adopted in Persia and Adrianople. [BKG250; GPB176, “Nabil-e aʿzam Zaranadi, Mollā Mohammad,” by Vahid Rafati, Encyclopædia Iranica,]

The phrase ‘the people of the Bayán', which now denotes the followers of Mírzá Yahyá, was discarded and is replaced by the term ‘the people of Bahá'. [BKG250; GBP176]

The 17-year-old Áqá Buzurg-i-Níshápúrí, Badí`, arrived in `Akká having walked from Mosul. He was able to enter the city unsuspected. [BKG297; RB3:178]

He was still wearing the simple clothes of a water bearer. [BKG297]

For the story of his life, see BKG294–297 and RB3:176–179.

For his transformation see RB3:179–182.

Badí` saw `Abdu'l-Bahá in a mosque and was able to write a note to Him. The same night Badí` entered the citadel and went into the presence of Bahá'u'lláh. He met Bahá'u'lláh twice. [BKG297; RW3:179]

Badí` asked Bahá'u'lláh for the honour of delivering the Tablet to the Sháh and Bahá'u'lláh bestowed it on him. [BKG297; RB3:182]

The journey to Tehran took four months; he traveled alone. [BKG298]

For the story of the journey see BKG297–300 and RB3:184.

For the Tablet of Bahá'u'lláh to Badí` see BKG299 and RB3:175–176.

Regarding the tablet to the Sháh

“Bahá’u’lláh’s lengthiest epistle to any single sovereign” -- Lawḥ-i-Sulṭán, (the Tablet to Náṣiri’d-Dín Sháh) Of the various writings that make up the Súriy-i-Haykal, one requires particular mention. The Lawḥ-i-Sulṭán, the Tablet to Náṣiri’d-Dín Sháh, Bahá’u’lláh’s lengthiest epistle to any single sovereign, was revealed in the weeks immediately preceding His final banishment to ‘Akká. It was eventually delivered to the monarch by Badí‘, a youth of seventeen, who had entreated Bahá’u’lláh for the honour of rendering some service. His efforts won him the crown of martyrdom and immortalized his name. The Tablet contains the celebrated passage describing the circumstances in which the divine call was communicated to Bahá’u’lláh and the effect it produced. Here, too, we find His unequivocal offer to meet with the Muslim clergy, in the presence of the Sháh, and to provide whatever proofs of the new Revelation they might consider to be definitive, a test of spiritual integrity significantly failed by those who claimed to be the authoritative trustees of the message of the Qur’án. [The Universal House of Justice (Introduction to ‘The Summons of the Lord of Hosts’)]

Bahá'u'lláh tasked Shaykh Salmán to escort Munírih Khánum (Fátimih Khánum) to `Akká to marry `Abdu'l-Bahá. She traveled from her home in Isfahan to Shíráz where she stayed with the wife of the Báb then to Mecca for pilgrimage. From Mecca she traveled to `Akká. [MKBM]

DH45 says she was called to the Holy Land in December 1871 to January 1872.

BKG347 says she performed the pilgrimage in February 1873.

See CH75–79 (Visit to Shíráz) and CH80-90 (Her journey and subsequent marriage) for Munírih Khánum's own account.

`Abdu'l-Bahá writes The Mysterious Forces of Civilization, a treatise on the establishment of a just, progressive and divinely-based government. [SDCV]

It was lithographed in Bombay in 1882. It was first published in English under the title The Mysterious Forces of Civilization in London in 1910. [SDCV] It was re-issued in 1918 and later translated as The Secret of Divine Civilization by Marzieh Gail and published by the Bahá'í Publishing Trust in Wilmette in 1957.

Shoghi Effendi calls it `Abdu'l-Bahá's outstanding contribution to the future reorganization of the world'. [WOB37]

The first Trustee of the Huqúqu'lláh was Hájí Sháh-Muhammad-i-Manshádí, or Jináb-i-Sháh Muhammad from Manshád, Yazd who had become a believer in Baghdad. [Message from the Universal House of Justice dated 25 March, 1985]

His title was Amínu'l-Bayán (Trustee of the Bayán).

He made many journeys between Iran and the Holy Land carrying donations and petitions from the friends and returning with Tablets and news.

He was tasked with receiving the casket of the Báb and transferring it to the Mosque of Imámzádih Zayd in Tehran where it stayed until 'Abdu'l-Bahá sent for it for the internment.

Hájí Sháh-Muhammad was in 'Akká when Áqá Buzurg, entitled Badí', came to confer with Bahá'u'lláh. He and Badí met on Mount Carmel as directed by Bahá'u'lláh.

He was killed as a result of wounds incurred during an attack during a Kurdish revolt. [RoB3p73]

The passing of Khadíjih-Bagum, the wife of the Báb, in Shíráz in the house of her Husband. [BBD127; EB235; KBWB35; DB191; RoB2p387] Note: KBWB35 states that she passed on the 15th of September, 1882.

Within two hours of her passing her faithful servitor, an Ethiopian slave named Fiddhih, someone who had been a member of the household since the age of seven, passed away as well. Both were interred within the Shrine of Sháh-Chirágh. [BK35]

Upon her passing Bahá'u'lláh revealed a tablet of visitation for her and later He composed a verse to be inscribed on her tombstone. [RoB2p387]

A number of leading members of the Tihrán Bahá'í community are arrested and subsequently condemned to death. Some are confined for a period of 19 months in severe circumstances but the death sentences are not carried out. [BBR292–5; BW18:383]

This is occasioned by the release of Bahá'u'lláh from strict confinement and the subsequent increase in the number of pilgrims from Iran causing an upsurge of Bahá'í activities, particularly in Tihrán. [BBR292–5]

E. G. Browne, the noted Orientalist, spent 12 months in Persia. An important purpose of his journey was to contact the Bábís. [BBR29]

For a list of his books and other works and his relationship with the Bahá'í Faith see BBR29–36.

Also see BBD47; Balyuzi, Edward Granville Browne and the Bahá'í Faith and Momen, Selections From the Writings of E. G. Browne.

While sailing from Naples to New York 'Abdu'l-Bahá gave an account of Mírzá Yahyá and his followers and of the complaints they made to Edward G. Browne: "They tampered with the contents of the history of Hájí Mírzá Jání by removing some of its passages and inserting others. They sent it to the libraries of London and Paris and through such falsehood induced him [Browne] to translate and publish the document. In order to achieve his own selfish desires, he had it printed." [Mahmúd's Diary p21]

The passing of Mullá Sádiq-i-Muqaddas-i-Khurásání entitled by Bahá'u'lláh Ism'lláh'l-Asdaq (In the Name of God the Most Truthful) in Hamadán. He was born in Mashhad in 1800, the son of a cleric, around the beginning of the 19th century He furthered his own clerical studies in Karbila under the Shaykhi leader Sayyid Qasim Rashti, eventually gaining the rank of mujtahid, and becoming known by the honorific title Muqaddas (‘the holy one’).

As a young man he had been a disciple of Siyyid Kázim and had met Siyyid 'Alí-Muhammad in Karbilá. He was among the first believers who identified with the Message of the Báb. See DB100 and EB7 for the story of how he independently determined His identity when he met Mullá Husayn in Isfahán on his way to deliver a tablet to Bahá'u'lláh in Tehran. The very next day he left Isfahán for Shíráz on foot arriving 12 days later to find that the Báb had already departed for pilgrimage.

He took up residence in Shíráz and received a Tablet from the Báb instructing him to change the Call to Prayer. See DB146-148, EB13-14 for the story of how he endured over 900 strokes of the lash on the command of Husayn Khán-i-Írva´ní, the Governor of the province of Fars, and remained indifferent to the pain. (6 August, 1845) He was expelled from the city and proceeded to Yazd. He had similar fate in that city and was banished.

On the way to Khurásán he joined Mullá Husayn and those who would participate in the Tabarsí siege where he was on hand for the death of Mullá Husayn. (DB381) After the deception and massacre he was one of the few survivors and, as a prisoner, was taken to Mázindarán to be executed by the family Prince Mihdí-Qulí Mírzá who had commanded the royal troops and had been killed in battle. On route the party called on the clerics to interrogate him and his fellow Bábi and they became convinced that they were not heretics deserving of execution. The prisoners were to be sent to Tehran but escaped and made their way to Míhámí and eventually to Mashad.

In 1861, after life in that city became impossible, he went to Baghdád where he attained the presence of Bahá'u'lláh. After 14 months he returned to his native province of Khurásán.

He continued in his audacious teaching and as a result was taken to Tehran where he was kept in the Síhåh-Chál. He taught a number of fellow prisoners about the Promised One and converted Hakím Masíh, the Jewish physician assigned to attend to the prisoners. He was the first Bahá'í of Jewish background in Tehran (and was the grandfather of Lutfu'lláh Hakím, a former member of the Universal House of Justice.) After 28 months imprisonment he was pardoned but refuse to leave without his fellow prisoners. The Sháh released 40 of the 43 prisoners. (The remaining three were guilty of actual crimes.)

After Tehran he went to Khurásán and returned to the capital some three years later to help in changing the hiding place of the remains of the Báb. Then he travelled to Káshán, Isfahán and Yazd where he convinced some of the Afnáns to accept the truth of their Nephew's claims. After returning to Khurásán he was given permission to make a pilgrimage to 'Akká where he remained for some four months, returning by way of Mosul and Baghdád. When he reached Hamadán he was exhausted. Twelve days after his arrival he passed.

He had been the recipient of many tablets from Bahá'u'lláh including a Tablet of Visitation after his passing. One of the most well-know tablets was the Lawh-i-Ahbáb (Tablet of the Friends). It is thought He revealed this Tablet some time after leaving the barracks in 'Akká, about 1870-1871. [RoB3p258-260, List of the Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh]

He was the father of Ibn-i-Asdaq who Bahá'u'lláh appointed a Hand of the Cause of God. [EB19]

‘Abdu’l-Baha posthumously referred to him as a Hand of the Cause of God.

Upheaval in Najafábád: Áqá Najafí, the `Son of the Wolf', drives over a hundred Bahá'ís out of Sidih and Najafábád. They take sanctuary in the Telegraph Office and in the stables of the governor of Isfahán. [BW18:383]

Hájí Ákhúnd, Hájí Amín and Ibn-i-Abhar are arrested. Hájí Ákhúnd is imprisoned in Tihrán for two years; Hájí Amín is imprisoned in Qazvín for two years; and Ibn-i-Abhar is imprisoned in Tihrán for four years. [BW18:383–4]

Mírzá Mahmúd-i-Furúghí is arrested in Furúghí and sent to Mashhad. From there he is sent to Kalát-i-Nadírí where he is imprisoned for two years. [BW18:384]

In Mashhad a mob sets out to kill Mírzá Husayn-i-Bajistání, but failing to find him they loot his shop. [BW18:384]

Seven Bahá'ís from Sidih who had gone to Tihrán to petition the Sháh for protection secure a decree from him permitting them to return home. When they try to enter Sidih they are killed. [BBRXXIX, 285–9; BW18:383]

Seven Bahá'ís were executed on the order of the governor of Yazd, Husain Mírzá, Jalálu'd-Dín-Dawlih (the grandson of the shah and the son of Zillu's-Sultán) and at the instigation of the mujtahid, Shaykh Hasan-i-Sabzivárí. [BW18:384]

For their names see BW18:384.

For details of the executions see GBP201–2.

For Western reports of the episode see BBR301–5.

Bahá'u'lláh stated that a representative of Zillu's-Sultán. Hájí Sayyáh, visited Him in 'Akká in the hope of persuading Him to support his plot to usurp the throne. He was promised freedom to practice the Faith should He support him. Hájí Sayyáh was arrested in Tehran in April of 1891 and Zillu's-Sultán, afraid that he would be implicated in the plot to overthrow the king, inaugurated vigorous persecution of the Bahá'ís in Yazd in order to draw attention from himself and prove his loyalty to the crown and to Islam. Had Bahá'u'lláh reported this incident to the Shah, Zillu's-Sultán would have paid dearly for his disloyalty. [BBR357-358]

See also RB3:194–6 and SBBH2:77.

“The tyrant of the land of Yá (Yazd) committed that which has caused the Concourse on High to shed tears of blood.” from the Lawḥ-i-Dunyá (Tablet of the World) Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 85

Two believers were arrested during the same period. Hájí Amín was sent to the prison of Qazvín, and Hand of the Cause Ibn-i-Abhar was consigned for four years in Tíhran, in which he bore the same chains as Bahá'u'lláh did, during the Latter's imprisonment in 1852.[Essay by Mehdi Wolf]

The passing of Hand of the Cause of God Nabil-i-Akbar Áqá Muhammed-i-Qá'iní. He was born in Naw-Firist, Persia (Iran) on 29 March 1829.

“It has been claimed that no one within the enclave of the Baha’i Faith has ever surpassed the profundity of his erudition.” Bahá’u’lláh addressed the Lawh-i-Hikmat (Tablet of Wisdom) in his honour. [EB115]

He was imprisoned a number of times in Iran for his Bahá’í activities and eventually moved to Ashkhabad (‘Ishqábád, Turkmenistan). He died in Bukhárá, Uzbekistan. ‘Abdu’lBahá designated him a Hand of the Cause of God. [LoF28-31]

Násiri'd-Dín Sháh was assassinated on the eve of the celebration of his jubilee. He had ascended to the throne in 1848 and by the Islamic lunar calendar it marked the 50th year of his reign. [BKG455]

BBRXXIX and BBRSM219 say it was 1 May.

His assassin, Mírzá Ridá-yi-Kirmáni, a Pan-Islamic terrorist, was a follower of Jamálu'd-Dín-i-Afghání, one of the originators of the Constitutional movement in Iran and an enemy of the Faith. [BBRSM87; GBP296; MCS540]

Muzaffari'd-Dín became the shah of Persia. He was the son of Násiri'd-Dín Sháh. He had been sent as governor to the province of Azerbaijan in 1861 and, as the crown prince, had spent 35 years in the pursuit of pleasure. When he ascended to the throne he was unprepared for the office. In addition, the country had huge debts to both Britain and Russia.

The martyrdom of Hand of the Cause of God Varqa (‘Dove’), Mírzá ‘Ali-Muhammad. (b.1856) He and his young son,
Ruhu’lláh, were killed by, Hajib’ud-Dawleh, one of the Qajar courtiers, in fact the Chief Steward, in the aftermath of the assassination of Nasir'd-Din Shah. [GPB296, BBRXXIX]

The passing of Hand of the Cause of God Shaykh Muhammad-Ridáy-i-Yazdí (Mullá Ridá) while incarcerated in the Síyáh-Cháh.

He was born in Muhammad-Ábád in the province of Yazd into a well-known family in about 1814. He was provided a good education and he became a divine known for his piety, eloquence and courage.

Mullá Ridá became a follower of the Báb in the early days of the Revelation. He recognized Bahá'u'lláh as the Promised One of the Bayan some time after 1855 upon reading Qasídiy-i-Varqá'íyyih, "Ode of the Dove". (Bahá'u'lláh had composed this ode while still in Sulaymáníyyih.)

In one story of his courage in teaching and his endurance in withstanding abuse, he was found to be picking his teeth while being bastinadoed and, in another, while a elderly man he withstood a brutal flogging on his bare back in the prison yard. A witness to this flogging, Ghulám-Ridá Khán, a notable of Tehran who happened to be imprisoned at the same time, became a believer upon seeing his steadfastness under the lashing. [RoB1p84-91, EB89-111, LoF21-27]

'Abdu'l-Bahá referred to a few of the believers posthumously as being Hands of the Cause (see MF5 and BW14p446) Adib Taherzadeh points out that "since there are one or two others by the same name (Shaykh-Ridáy-i-Yazdí) it is not possible to identify him. However, some believe strongly that he is Mullá Muhammad-i-Ridáy-i-Muhammmad-Ábádí. [RoB4p186n]

William Hoar, one of the first Bahá'ís in America, is asked by `Abdu'l-Bahá to meet with the Persian ambassador in Washington to request justice for the Bahá'ís of Iran, thus marking the beginning of the efforts of the American Bahá'í community to alleviate the persecution of their brethren. [BFA2:51]

'Aqá Jamál Burújirdí had been a member of the Islamic clergy in Burujerd and was widely known and revered across Iran as a gifted teacher of the Faith.
He was a proud and egotistical man but during the lifetime of Bahá'u'lláh he received much praise and various honorary titles such as Ismu'lláh'u'l-Jamál (The Name of God Jamál) due to his many services. During his visit to 'Akká following the passing of Bahá'u'lláh he made contact with Mírzá Muhammad-Alí with the goal of securing a prominent place in the administration of the faith under his leadership, all the while feigning loyalty to 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
In God Passes By p247-248 Shoghi Effendi says of Mírzá Muhammad-Alí and those who tried to assist him in his nefarious efforts, "Closely-knit by one common wish and purpose; indefatigable in their efforts; assured of the backing of the powerful and perfidious Jamál-i-Burújirdí and his henchmen, Ḥájí Ḥusayn-i-Káshí, Khalíl-i-Khú’í and Jalíl-i-Tabrízí who had espoused their cause; linked by a vast system of correspondence with every center and individual they could reach; seconded in their labours by emissaries whom they dispatched to Persia, ‘Iráq, India and Egypt; emboldened in their designs by the attitude of officials whom they bribed or seduced, these repudiators of a divinely-established Covenant arose, as one man, to launch a campaign of abuse and vilification which compared in virulence with the infamous accusations which Mírzá Yaḥyá and Siyyid Muḥammad had jointly levelled at Bahá’u’lláh."
He was publically unmasked after the Covenant-breakers printed letters with falsehoods and misleading statements. believed to be about four years after the ascension of Bahá'u'lláh. He became known in the Bahá'í community as "Hyena" or "Old Hyena" (pír-i-kaftár). He died in poverty and disgrace in Iran. The date of his death is not known. [M9YA6-7, 432, RoB2p118-9, 264-267, MMoB104-105, CB165-166, 209-15, Biographies of Jamal-i-Burujirdi]

He was the recipient of many tablets from both Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá, one of which can be found in Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh p5-9 and a more complete provisional translation of the original tablet can be found here.

The passing of Mullá Zaynu'l-'Ábidín, surnamed Zaynu'l-Muqarrabín (the Ornament of the Near Ones) in 'Akká. He was born in Rajab, one of the villages of Najafábád near Isfahán to a family of Muslim clerics in May 1818. He had first heard of the Báb's claim while on pilgrimage in Karbilá in 1844 and became a believer in 1851. He met Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdád after His return from Kurdistán in 1856. He was among the believers who were exiled from Baghdád in July of 1868 and under his leadership and guidance the believers in Mosul became a model community. He was invited by Bahá'u'lláh to come to 'Akká in Sep-Oct 1885 and shortly after that Baha'u'lláh asked that the community in Mosul be abandoned. [EB274-276]

Jináb-i-Zaynu’l-Muqarrabín was well versed in Islamic jurisprudence. After the revelation of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, he was authorized to submit questions concerning the laws. The treatise, titled Questions and Answers, an appendix to the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, is a compilation he made of Bahá’u’lláh’s answers to questions concerning the laws of the Most Holy Book. It took more than two decades for "Questions and Answers" to be published in Persian and much longer to be published in English and other languages. [KA9]

See Some Answered Questions" and Its Compiler by Baharieh Rouhani Ma'ani published in Lights of Irfan, 18, pages 425-452. In this paper the author compares the similarities and differences of Questions and Answers and Some Answered
Questions.

For an image Zaynu’l-Muqarrabín see Picture Gallery (miniature by Ethel Rosenberg).

Hippolyte Dreyfus, Marianne Jerard and Laura Barney visited Russian Turkistan and Iran, specifically Tabriz and Maku and Ishqabad. While in Iran, they witnessed the disturbances associated with the constitutional revolution, which had reached its climax that summer. [BFA2:XVI]

After an almost bloodless revolution Muzaffari'd-Din Sháh was forced to sign a document calling for a National Assembly to be elected from amount the working guilds, landowners merchants and the nobles. The parliament was opened on the 7th of October. [AY24]

The accession of Muhammad-`Alí Sháh to the throne of Iran. He reigned until 1909. He attempted to rescind the constitution and abolish parliamentary government. After several disputes with the members of the Majlis in June, 1908 he bombed the Majlis building, arrested many of the deputies and closed down the assembly. In July 1909 constitutional forces deposed him and he went into exile in Russia from where he attempted to regain his throne. [BBR354, 482, AY218]

The Bahá'í community received some measure of protection under this regime. [BBRSM:97–8]

Anglo-Russian Convention relating to Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet, was signed in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The convention brought shaky British–Russian relations to the forefront by solidifying boundaries that identified respective control in the three countries. It delineated spheres of influence in Persia, stipulated that neither country would interfere in Tibet’s internal affairs, and recognized Britain’s influence over Afghanistan. [AY47-48]

The accession of Ahmad Sháh, the boy-king, to the throne of Iran. He was twelve years old and because of his youth a regency was established under Azudu'l-Mulk, the head of the Qájár family. Ahmad's official coronation took place on the 21st of July, 1914. His reign formerly lasted until October 1925 when he was deposed by the Majles while he was absent in Europe. He was the last of the Qajar dynasty. [BBR482; CBM57]

Dr Susan Moody, a famed American homeopathist, arrived in Tihrán. She and four Persian Bahá'í doctors start the Sehat Hospital. Because the hospital was only accessible to the wealthy she established a private practice that was open to all women regardless of their ability to pay. [BFA2:359-360]

She spent two days in 'Akká en route to Persia and 'Abdu'l-Bahá conferred upon her the title Amatu'l-'Alí (Handmaid of the Most High). [BFA2:358]

Dr Sarah A. Clock arrives from Seattle in 1911 to assist her followed by Miss Elizabeth Stewart (nurse). [BFA2:361]

The passing of Hand of the Cause of God Hájí Mullá ‘Alí-Akbar-i-Shahmírzádí, (Hájí Akhund). He was born in Shahmírzád around 1842/3.

Bahá’u’lláh had entrusted him with the sacred task of moving and hiding the remains of the Báb. In Tehran he transferred the remains to Hand of the Cause Amínu’l-Bayán who moved them through innumerable dangers to a safe hiding place in the Mosque of the Imámzádih Zayd in Tehran, where they lay concealed until the time when, at the behest of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, they were transferred to the Holy Land to be laid in their permanent resting place on the slopes of Mount Carmel. [Message from the Universal House of Justice dated 25 March, 1985]

Within a year of her arrival Dr. Susan Moody opens the Tarbíyat School for Girls in Tihrán. [BBD221–2; BFA2:360–1]

Those serving at the school were:

Miss Lillian Kappes of Hoboken, New Jersey arrived in December of 1911 to serve as a teacher. She died on the 1st of December, 1920 of typhus and was buried there.

She was replaced by Genevieve Coy, a qualified psychologist, a Ph.D. in 1922 who was followed by Adelaide Sharp in 1929. Her mother, Clara Sharp joined her in 1931. [BFA2p361, AY233]

Elizabeth Stewart who served as a nurse at the school accompanied Lillian Kappes on her arrival. Miss Stewart served until 1924 when she returned to Philadelphia where she died in 1926. [ABF43]

Munírih Khánum Ayádí, the mother of Dr Karím Ayádí (later famed as the Shah much-trusted doctor) was Persia’s first official Director of the Tarbíyat School for Girls. She was widely recognized as exceptional, at a time when Persia’s Bahá’í women were only gradually emerging from their earlier state under Islam. Much respected by the men, her attitude toward them was one of total equality. Her greatness was in herself, her devotion to the Faith absolute, and she was made a member of such advanced committees as the Bahá’í Women’s Committee. Her views were moderated by her sense of humour, which included self-deprecation, so that she never subjected you to her piety. One day during the Bahá’í Fast ,she asked Marzieh Gall: ‘Do you think God would notice if I ducked into that room and sneaked a few puffs of tobacco?’ [AY333]

W. Morgan Shuster was an American chosen by the Persian Chargé d’Affaires at Washington, Mirza Ali Kuli Khan, to serve as Treasurer-general of Persian for a period of three years. His mandate was to organize and conduct the collection and disbursements of the revenues. Four American assistants were likewise engaged to serve under the Treasurer-general. Since the Anglo-Russian agreement of 1907 the country was under the influence of the Russians in the north and the British in the south. The purpose in engaging Shuster was to put the country's financial affairs in order so that they might attract investment from other nations.

After an encounter with the Russian Consul-General he was forced to leave on the 14th of January, 1912. [AY79-82]

Later that day, by chance, 'Abdu'l-Bahá encountered the Persian prince, Sultán-Mas'ud Mírzá Zillu's-Sultán (1850-1918), the eldest son of Násirid-/dín Sháh, (1850-1918) in the Parc Hotel. He was in voluntary exile in Europe accompanied by his four sons. At various times, he had been the governor or governor-general of various provinces in Iran from 1862 to 1907 and had persecuted the Bahá'ís zealously. He was responsible for ratifying the execution of the King of Martyrs and the Beloved of Martyrs in 1879. Upon meeting 'Abdu'l-Bahá he presented his excuses but 'Abdu'l-Bahá forgave him by saying "All those things are in the past. Never think of them again." [DJT172-3, ABF17]

Annie Boylan arrived in Thonon-les-Bains from America by way of Lausanne. 'Abdu'l-Bahá is reported to have told her that the building of the Shrine of the Báb was the fulfillment of the prophecy that "the Lord would come and rebuild the temple that had been torn down". He added that the Tomb of the Báb and that of Bahá'u'lláh were considered the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkar. [SoW vol 11. no. 1 (March 21, 1920) p1-15, ABF18]

In the morning 'Abdu'l-Bahá's visitor was Sultán-Husayn Mírzá, the eldest son of Zillu's-Sultán. Between 1879 and 1906 he had served as either governor or deputy governor of Khuzestán, Lorestán, Yazd, Fárs, Burujerd and Kurdistan. He was responsible for the martyrdoms in Yazd in 1891 and again in 1903. He had been exiled with his father in 1908.

As a footnote, in his latter years he became a devoted Bahá'í. [DJT206]

Later He gave a talk in Arabic that was published in its entirety by the leading Egyptian newspaper, Al-Ahram. [ABF45-48, SoW vol 5 no 10, Far Stretching River (translation by Mohsen Enayat)]

`Abdu'l-Bahá arrived in Washington DC after a five hour train ride from New York by train. He was accompanied by Dr Getsinger, Dr Fareed, Mírzá Valiyu'lláh Nakhjavání and Mahmúd-i-Zarqání. [239D:37–8; AB178; SBR78, APD9]

John Bosch had travelled from California specifically to see Him. He was given a Persian name by the Master, Núrání (The Luminous). [Mahmúd's Diary p48-49]

He stayed at the Parsons' home, 1700 Eighteenth Street, NW, for several days and gave a talk every afternoon at 5PM.

See AY85 for the welcome He received from the Kahn family and others including Mrs Agnes Parson, Mason Remy and Joseph Hannen.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá encouraged commercial ties between the United States and Persia. ‘For the Persians there is no government better fitted to contribute to the development of their natural resources and the helping of their national needs in a reciprocal alliance than the United States of
America; and for the Americans there could be no better industrial outlet and market than the virgin … soil of Persia. The mineral wealth of Persia is still latent and untouched. It is my hope that the great American democracy may be instrumental in developing these hidden resources and that a bond of perfect amity and unity may be established between the American republic and the government of Persia. May this bond—whether material or spiritual—be well cemented.’ [AY48]

With his final year of high school over, Shoghi Effendi hastened from Beirut to Ramleh to join the Master. He, the Greatest Holy Leaf and the eldest daughter of `Abdu'l-Bahá arrived in Egypt. [PG9 AB401]

During this period Tammaddun'ul-Mulk (who had been in London during `Abdu'l-Bahá first visit) attempted to divide the Bahá'ís of Tehran and Dr Amínu'llah Farid's increasingly erratic behaviour brought Him much suffering and sorrow. [AB402]

"Tamaddunu'l-Mulk caused mischief amongst the friends and perpetrated such disunity that the foundation of the divine Faith was nearly destroyed. On numerous occasions, he repented. And yet, after each contrition, he would cause further mischief. Eventually, I telegraphed that Tamaddun is expelled and association with him is not permissible."
[Tablet Concerning Covenant-Breakers: Excerpt by Abdu'l-Bahá translated by Ahang Rabbani]

In this Tablet 'Abdu'l-Bahá warned against association with Covenant-Breakers because its harm will injure the Cause of God and will enable them to penetrate the community and to completely uproot the Faith from within. Association with Covenant Breakers is the same as with a person nurturing a snake in his shirt or giving a home to a scorpion in his sleeve.

Shaykh ‘Alí Akbar-i-Qúchání is shot to death in Mashhad. Considerable anti-Bahá’í agitation follows and many Bahá’ís are forced to seek sanctuary. Three hundred people are arrested. [BBRXXX; BW18:387; GPB298–9]

The end of the First World War or the Great War. It was a global conflict originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. It led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. An estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilians died as a direct result of the war, and it also contributed to later genocides and the 1918 influenza pandemic, which caused between 50 and 100 million deaths worldwide. Military losses were aggravated by new technological and industrial developments and the tactical stalemate caused by gruelling trench warfare. It was one of the deadliest conflicts in history and precipitated major political changes, including the Revolutions of 1917–1923, in many of the nations involved. Unresolved rivalries at the end of the conflict contributed to the start of World War II about twenty years later. [Wikipedia]

During the war suffered horribly. It is estimated that during one year 120,000 people died of disease and starvation. The Bahá'í communities established relief centres to care for the believers and not a single Bahá'í starved or was even in need. [PG111]

The Anglo-Persian agreement was signed whereby Persia would get advisors for every department and give every concession to England. It effectively made Persia a British protectorate and eliminated the Russian influence that had been established by the earlier Anglo-Russian pact. The United States Government was much displeased, for this represented a breach of ‘open covenants openly arrived at’, one of Wilson’s Fourteen Points, and represented a continuation of the secret diplomacy of former times. The price of this agreement, according to one official, was £500,000 paid out to one prominent official, and £300,000 to another.

When the Persians discovered by what dubious means this Agreement was contrived, they arose in fury, there was a coup d’état with the backing of the Cossack Brigade, Siyyid Zia-ed-Din came to power (1921) and abrogated the Agreement. Then he himself would be overthrown, and replaced by Reza Khan of the Cossack Brigade as Minister of War and Commander in Chief. Thus an illiterate one-time army private, once a sentry at a hospital gate, would eventually (1925) become a powerful Shah.
[AY172, 210]

The publication of the monthly Akhbár-i Amrí from 1922 to 1978 first by “Lajnih-yi Nashr-i Nafahát” (Committee for the Diffusion of the Divine Fragrances) and then by Mahfil-i Ruhání-yi Millí-yi Baháiyán-i Írán (National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Iran).

American Vice-Consul Major Robert Imbrie was murdered in Tihrán for being a Bahá'í, which he was not, straining relations between the Persian and American governments. When Washington threatened to sever diplomatic relations, Persia arrested some two hundred mullás, formally apologized to the United States and accepted Washington’s terms for full reparations. [BBR462-5; BW18:388, [AY277-279]

For a picture of the floral tribute sent to his funeral by the Bahá'ís of Persia and America see BW1:100.

Ahmad Sháh was deposed and the Qájár dynasty (1785-1925) was formerly terminated by declaration of the National Consultative Assembly. He was replaced by Reza Shah Pahlavi. [BBD190; BBR482; BBRSM87, PDC66-69, AY46-47]

Eight or perhaps as many as twelve Bahá’ís are beaten to death in Jahrum, Fárs, Iran. [BW18:388, SETPE1p128, GBF36, UD49-53]

It is first reported that 12 Bahá’ís are killed. [PP98]

For the response of Shoghi Effendi see BA104–6, 106–8; GBF36–7; PP98–9; and UD48–53.

For Western accounts and responses see BBR465–72.

"The attacks were apparently instigated by a majlis representative who sought to gain favour with anti-Baha’i religious leaders in order to secure reelection. The Baha’is complained to the local and national authorities to obtain redress but were denied. This was the last incident of mass killing of Baha’is during Reza Shah’s reign." [Religious Contentions in Modern Iran,1881-1941 pg 229-230 by Mina Yazdani]

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada makes representations to the Iranian government concerning the martyrdoms in Jahrum and asking the Sháh to intervene on behalf of the oppressed Bahá’ís. [BBR469; BW2:287]

Abu'l-Qásim Faizi, a 19-year-old student who had attended the Tarbiyát School in Tehran but now enrolled at the American University at Beirut visits Haifa to meet Shoghi Effendi. Like Hasan Balyuzi before him, he is immediately possessed by a great desire to serve him. [SETPE1p146-7]

The passing of Hand of the Cause of God Mírzá 'Alí-Muhammad, known as Ibn-i-Asdaq. He was born in Mashhad in 1850/1.

His father was Mullá Sádiq-i-Muqaddas-i-Khursúní, referred to as a Hand of the Cause of God by 'Abdu'l-Bahá. [EM19]
While still a child he suffered imprisonment with his father in Tehran.

He begged Bahá’u’lláh permission to be a
martyr. Baha’u’llah said that if one lived right he might attain martyrdom. In 1882 Baha’u’llah conferred the station of
martyr on him calling him “Shahid Ibn-i-Shahid” (“Martyr, son of the Martyr”) .”

He is the first of the Hands of the
Cause of God named by Bahá’u’lláh.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave him a special mission to teach members of the “ruling class”
the Faith.

He was deeply involved in the planning and construction of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in ‘Ishqábád.

The third Trustee of the Huqúqu'lláh was Hájí Ghulám-Ridá (entitled Amín-i-Amín) (Trustee of the Trustee). He had been Hájí Amín's assistant for several years and so was chosen to succeed him. He had been born into the wealthy merchant class in Tehran. [Message from the Universal House of Justice dated 25 March, 1985]

During his tenure steps were taken to register Bahá'í properties and endowments in Iran.

A Covenant-breaker, Jamil Irani, tries to still up trouble by implicating the Bahá'ís with Saláru'd-Dawlih, an ambitious brother of Muhammad-'Ali Sháh who had been deposed by the 1909 Revolution in Iran. The allegation was investigated by Lord Plummer, the British High Commissioner in Palestine who learned the truth of the matter. [SETPE1p151-152]

The publication of Bahá'ism: Its Origins, History and Teachings by Reverend William McElwee Miller, a Presbyterian missionary working in Mashhad, Iran. He wrote the "All impartial observers of Bahá'ism in Persia are agreed that here in the land of its birth this religion...is now steadily losing ground...It is only a matter of time until this strange movement...shall be known only to students of history." [MCSp766]

The Iranian government introduces measures against the Bahá’ís throughout Iran. Restrictions are placed on the import of Bahá’í books and periodicals by post and on the publication of Bahá’í literature. Bahá’í marriages are not recognized. [BW18:388]

The American National Spiritual Assembly addresses a petition to the Sháh of Iran requesting that the ban on Bahá’í literature be removed and asking that its representative, Mrs Keith Ransom-Kehler, be recognized to present in person the appeal. [BW5:390–1]

The Tarbíyat Bahá’í Schools in Tihrán and all other Bahá'í schools across the country are closed by order of the Minister of Education (headed by 'Ali-Asghar-i-Hikmat, a well-known Azali) when they fail to open on a holy day. [BBD221–2; BW18:389; CB312; GPB363; PP308; RoB4p313]

The writing of Episodes in the History of the Covenant by Shoghi Effendi originally written as "Waqáy-i-Tárikhiyyih dar 'Ahd wa Mitháq-i-Iláhi" for the friends in Iran. In 1997 it was translated by Khazeh Fananapazir and edited by Mehdi Wolf. [Episodes in the History of the Covenant]

The fourth Trustee of the Huqúqu'lláh was Jináb-i-Valíyu'lláh Varqá, the third son of Varqá the martyr. He was born in Tabriz and after the death of his father and brother he was raised by his grandmother, a fanatical Muslim. At the age of 16 his uncle removed him from the home and taught him the Faith. He attended the American University at Beirut and spent summers with 'Abdu'l-Bahá and accompanied the Master to America and served as His interpreter. He returned to Iran where he served on local and national assemblies and was made a Trustee of the Huqúqu'lláh in 1938 at a time when the observance of the law spread throughout Iran. [Message from the Universal House of Justice dated 25 March, 1985]

He was elevated to a Hand of the Cause of God in 1951 and passed away in Tubingen, Germany in 1955 while taking a treatment for an illness. [BW13p831-834]

Persecution of the Bahá’ís of Iran continued throughout the country. [BW18:389]

Bahá’ís marrying without a Muslim ceremony were investigated, including several hundred in Tihrán alone. Most were imprisoned pending trial and were imprisoned for six to eight months afterwards and fined.

Bahá’í meetings in Kirmánsháh, Záhidán, Mashhad and other towns were harassed by the police.

The passing of Louis Alphonse Daniel Nicolas, signing A.-L.-M. Nicolas, (b. March 27 , 1864 in Rasht, Iran) in Paris. He was an historian and French orientalist, official interpreter of the Legation French abroad, and France's consul general in Tabriz.
After reading Gobineau's Trois ans en Asie, 1855-1858 he checked all the information Gobineau had written in his book, corrected some of it, and then began to translate the writings of the Báb. Seduced by this young doctrine, he converted to Bábism and thus became the first Western Bábí. He wrote various works Seyyed Ali Mohamed dit le Báb (1905) and was the first to translate a work of the Báb into French: the Arabic Beyan and the Persian Beyan, an Essai sur le Chéikhisme (1911) and several articles in newspapers such that Review of the Muslim World. Nicolas became knight of the Legion of Honour in 1909.

Moojan Momen says of him, "No European scholar has contributed so much to our knowledge of the life and teachings of the Báb as Nicholas. His study of the life of the Báb and his translations of several of the most important books of the Báb remain of unsurpassed value." [BBR36]

His important collection of manuscripts is auctioned and the items relevant to the Bahá’í and Bábí Faiths are purchased by the Bahá’í World Centre.

In Iran, Ridá Sháh abdicates and Muhammad-Ridá Sháh ascends to the throne. His rule was to last until 1979. [BBR482]

Ridá Sháh is overthrown by the British and Russians. [BBRSM173]

His reign can be described in three phases:

The first phase, from1941 through 1955, was a period characterized by physical danger, during which Baha’is were scapegoated in the interactions among the government, the clerics and the people, and experienced several bloody incidents, the culmination of which was the 1955 anti-Baha’i campaign and its aftermaths.

The second phase, from the late 1950s to around 1977, marked almost two decades of relative respite from physical attacks, during which Baha’is enjoyed more security than before, without ever being officially recognized as a religious community and while their existence as Baha’is was essentially ignored or denied.

The publication in Iran of The Political Confessions or Memoirs of Prince Dolgoruki (or, simply, Dolgorukov's Memoirs). The book contends that the Bábí Faith was simply an element in a plot to destabilize Iran and Islam. [22 February, 2009 Iran Press Watch]

See Religious Contentions in Modern Iran, 1881-1941 by Dr Mina Yazdani where she posits that "The process of Othering the Bahā’īs had at least three components; 1) religious, carried on by the traditionalist theologians; 2) institutional and formal, sanctioned by the state; and 3) political, the result of a joint and gradual process in which Azalīs, former Bahā’īs and reformist theologians all played a role. This process reached its culmination with the widespread publication of The Confessions of Dolgoruki which resulted in a fundamental paradigm shift in the anti-Bahā’ī discourse. With the widespread impression of Bahā’īs as spies of foreign powers, what up to that point constituted a sporadic theme in some anti-Bahā’ī polemics now became the dominant narrative of them all, including those authored by traditionalist clerics. Consequently, as Iran entered the 1940s, the process that would transform Islamic piety to political ideology was well under way."

In its preface, Dolgorukov's Memoirs purported to be a translation of the memoirs of Prince Dimitri Ivanovich Dolgorukov (Russian Minister in Iran from 1845-54), first published in the official organ of the Soviet Communist Party. According to the book, whose Russian “original” has never been found, Prince Dolgorukov had travelled to Iran during the 1830s, entered the ranks of the ‘ulama, and instigated the Bábí-Bahá’í uprising. The book totally contradicted the well-documented life of Prince Dolgorukov, and made obvious chronological and historical mistakes in its allegations about the lives of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh. Nevertheless, it was reprinted many times, and created a master narrative that others subsequently deployed. With its political tone, the book, on the one hand, heralded the ascendancy of politics over religion in the mindset of Iran’s Shi’a clergy, and on the other, demonstrated the vast popularity that conspiracy theories enjoyed in Iran. [Iran Press Watch 1407]

Fereidoon Adamiyyat, one of the most influential and widely acknowledged Iranian historians of the 20th century, argued in his Book, Amir Kabir and Iran, considered perhaps the most influential scholarly work of history published prior to the Islamic Revolution, that British intelligence officers were behind a plot which led to the creation of the Bábí Faith. He falsely claimed that Arthur Conolly, a British intelligence officer who was executed in Bukhara in 1842, had in his Journey to the North of India through Russia, Persia and Afghanistan admitted that Mulla Husayn Bushrui, the first follower of the Báb, was an agent working for him. Adamiyyat further concluded that without the aid of foreign powers such a religious sect could not have survived for so long, thus giving further credence to the conspiracy theories of his time and culture. Although He subsequently came to accept that Conolley had never made such a claim and removed the allegations in later editions of his book, the influence of his initial claim proved to be lasting among Iranians.
[Iran Press Watch 1407]

The Bahá'ís of Iran launched a Forty-five Month Plan ( 11 October, 1946 to 9 July, 1950, The Centenary of the Martyrdom of the Báb). Every province had specific assignments. [BBRSM158; CB316]
The objectives of the plan included;

1. Consolidation of all local Bahá'í communities.

2. Reestablishment of 62 dissolved Assemblies. (93 LSAs formed)

3. Formation of 22 groups.(37 established)

4. Creation of 13 new centres. (24 localities established)

5. Development of Assemblies from groups in three adjoining countries, namely in Kabul, Afghanistan, Mecca, Arabia and Bahrein Island, Persian Gulf.

6. The formation of groups in four localities on the Arabian Peniinsula.

7. The sending pioneers to India and 'Iráq to assist in the formation of new groups.

The Bahá'ís of Tehran were called upon to send out 50 families into the pioneer field. (160 arose) Every individual Bahá'í was included in the operation of the Plan-as a volunteer, by deputizing a pioneer, by contributing funds, by circuit teaching or by providing hospitality to students whose parents had become pioneers.
[Baháʾí World 11, pp. 34-36]

Concurrent with the Forty-Five Month Plan the Bahá'ís of Iran made a concerted effort to remove Bahá'í women from the traditional shackles of a lack of education an an inability to participate in public affairs. Women's conferences were held, educational opportunities were created, equality of opportunity , right and privilege was declared to be a an essential. [BW11p36].

Several National Spiritual Assemblies-Britain, Egypt, India, Iran and the United States, join forces in their first collaborative teaching effort called the Africa Campaign (1951-1953). [Ruhi 8.2 p46, BBRSM158, MBW135-140]

Anjoman-e Hojjatieh ("Society of Allah's Proof Over Creation"), also called the Hojjatieh Society founded specifically as an anti-Bahá'í organization by a charismatic Shiite Muslim cleric, Shaikh Mahmoud Halabi in the aftermath of the coup d'état of 1953. Between the early 1950s and the early 1970s a great number of the future elite of the Islamic revolution were trained by Hujjatieh. During the 1979 Iranian revolution, the Society was to play an important role in stirring animosity against Bahá'ís. However, in part because of differences in theology—among other things the Hojjatieh believe a truly Islamic state cannot be established until the return of the 12th Imam—the Society fell into disfavour and was banned by the regime in 1984. [Hojjatieh Society, Wiki]

In a moving ceremony, Shoghi Effendi places a silver box containing a fragment of plaster from the ceiling of the Báb’s cell in Máh-Kú under a tile in the golden dome of the Shrine of the Báb. [BW12:239; ZK285]

The Iranian Minister of the Interior announces in parliament that the Government has issued orders for the suppression of the ‘Bahá’í sect’ and the liquidation of the Bahá’í centres. [BBRSM174; BW18:391]

The dome of the National Bahá’í Centre in Tihrán is demolished with the personal participation of several high-ranking army officers. The publication of the pictures of this episode encourages a widespread outburst of persecution of Bahá’ís throughout Iran. [BW18:391]

After the coup in 1953 the Shah was indebted to the clergy for their support and so they were given a greater latitude to persecute the Bahá'ís. In an attempt to show his gratitude the Shah sent a high ranking officer to ask if they had any special requests and they called for the Bahá'í Centre in Tehran to be destroyed. The army occupied the Centre and high-ranking officers and clerics jointly demolished the dome. [Towards a History of Iran’s Baha’i Community During the Reign of Mohammad Reza Shah, 1941-1979 by Mina Yazdani.]

Appeals are made by National Spiritual Assemblies around the world through the Bahá’í International Community to the UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld to ask the Iranian government to halt the attacks on the Bahá’ís. [BW13:789–91; BW16:329; MBW88–9; PP304, 311]

The intervention of the Secretary-General of the UN, along with the efforts of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, bring an end to the physical persecution of the Bahá’ís, although their human rights are still denied. [BW13:790; BW16:329]

This marks the first time the Faith is able to defend itself with its newly born administrative agencies. An “Aid the Persecuted Fund” was established.

The passing of Mirzā Asad-Allāh, known as Fāżel Māzandarāni (b. Bábol, Persia 1881).

He became a Bahá'í in Tehran in 1909. He travelled to Egypt in 1919-1911 where he met with 'Abdu'l-Bahá and was send to India and Burma to promote the Faith.

'Abdu'l-Bahá sent him to North America for the period 1920-1921. He arrived in North America with Manúchihr Khán in time to speak at the National Convention. His purpose was to assist and stimulate the Bahá'í communities. He departed for the Holy Land on the 9th of July, 1921. [AB443; SBR88]

In about 1924 Shoghi Effendi wrote to the Central Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Persia, asking them to gather materials towards the compilation of a general history of the Bahá'í faith. Initially this work was handed to a committee and Fāżel served as the liaison between this committee and the Assembly, of which he was himself a member at the time. However, after the committee failed to make significant progress, Fāżel took on the responsibility to compile this work himself. His work, Ẓohur-al-Ḥaqq (variously also called Tāriḵ-e Ẓohur-al-Ḥaqq and Ketāb-e Ẓohur-al-Ḥaqq) is said to be the most comprehensive history of the first century of the Bahá'í faith yet written. It was compiled in nine volumes: volumes 1-3 completed in May of 1932, the fourth in February, 1936, and the final volume in 1943. For various reasons it has not been translated into English. [Ẓohur-al-Ḥaqq]

15 years after the establishment of Israel and during the course of the unrest that swept through Iran in response to a set of far-reaching reforms launched by Muhammad-Ridá Sháh, Ayatollah Khomeini and the Association of Iranian Clerics, in two separate declarations, denounced Bahá'ís as agents and representatives of Israel, and demanded their severe repression.
During the 1960s and 70s almost everything that troubled Iranian clerics was seen as evidence of a Bahá'í-Israeli plot against Islam. The Shah, who was harshly rebuked by the ‘ulama for his regime’s strong ties with Israel, was accused of being a Bahá'í because of some of the reforms he had introduced, notably his giving voting rights to women, and providing blue-collar industrial workers with a share of the profits earned by their companies. Various cultural events launched by the administration, some of which had clear Western tones, were seen as Bahá'í plots to undermine the Islamic identity of Iranians. Iranian ministers and courtiers were almost collectively accused of being Bahá'ís. Even Iran’s notorious intelligence agency, SAVAK, whose strong anti-leftist agenda had naturally led to its inclination to recruit people with Islamic ties, and which had obvious connections with the Hujjatieh society – the self-professed arch-enemies of the Bahá'ís – was seen as nothing more than a Bahá'í puppet. Consequently, the 1979 Islamic Revolution came about not just as an uprising against the Shah, but supposedly as a reaction to an Israeli-Bahá'í threat.
[Iran Press Watch 1407]

The inauguration of Shahyad Tower ("King's Memorial Tower") in Tehran. The tower was built in honour of the shah on the occasion of the commemoration of the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian Empire and has become an iconic symbol of the city of Tehran. It has been described as being a tower, an arch, a gate and an obelisk in one and is 50 meters (164 ft) tall and completely clad in some eight thousand blocks of cut marble from Isfahan Province. The main financing was provided by a group of five hundred Iranian industrialists.

After the Revolution in 1979 it was renamed The Azadi Tower (Liberty Tower) and was, in turn, the gathering place of the "rebels" in 1979 and for those protesting the results of the election in 2009.

The architect, Hossein Amanat was only 24 years old and a recent graduate when he won the competition for the project. In addition to having a remarkable career in designing buildings for commercial, educational and residential use, he is the architect for such Bahá'í projects as the Universal House of Justice Building, the Centre for the Study of the Holy Texts, the International Teaching Centre and the Mashriqu’l-Adhka in Samoa. He left Iran in 1978 and took up residence in Vancouver in 1980.
[Hossein Amanat website]

The conference held in St Louis, Missouri, to launch the Five Year Plan in the United States attracts some 10,000 Bahá’ís, the largest gathering of Bahá’ís to take place anywhere in the world to date. [BW16:203; VV40]

See "From Badasht to Stain Louis; An Evaluation of the First Bahá'í Conference and the Largest" by Zikrullah Khadem, ZK266-278.

Following the creation of the Rastákhíz political party by the Sháh of Iran and the refusal of the Bahá’ís to join it, although membership in it is compulsory, Bahá’ís throughout Iran are put under pressure. [BW18:391]

Iran became one of the first countries in the world to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The covenant spelled out clearly the concept of freedom of religion or belief.
Article 18 states that “[e]veryone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his/her religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.” The ICCPR also spells out specific rights to due process “without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” These include freedom from arbitrary arrest or detention, the right to be “promptly informed” of charges, and the right to legal counsel. Article 9 of the ICCPR states that “[n]o one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention.” It also states that “[a]nyone who is arrested shall be informed, at the time of arrest, of the reasons for his arrest and shall be promptly informed of any charges against him.” Article 14 spells out the right to legal counsel, stating everyone has the right “to defend himself in person or through legal assistance of his own choosing. …”
The Covenant was opened for signature at New York on 19 December 1966 and came into force on 23 March 1976. [International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; Fact Sheet]

The passing of Adelaide Sharp (b. Texas, 1896) in Tehran. In 1929 she accompanied Dr Susan Moody (77) to Tehran and and took up the position of principal of the Tarbiyat School for Girls (opened 1910). In 1931 she invited her mother, Clara Sharp, to come and live with her. After the closing of the Tarbiyat Schools on the 6th of December, 1934, the Guardian asked her to remain in Persia. She organized study classes for both boys and girls to study English writings such as Bahá'í Administration, The Promised Day is Come, The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh and other works from the Guardian. In 1954 the Guardian ruled that women could serve on Baha'i administrative bodied in Persia. She was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly and served in this role for the next fourteen years. She attended the First and Second International Conventions in 1963 and in 1968. Her five decade legacy of service in Iran included children's education, translating Writings, consolidating administrative institutions, serving as the"external affairs" representative for the National Assembly. Upon her passing memorial services where held in Tehran as well as other centres throughout the country. [BW17p418-420, Baha’i Heroes & Heroines]

Mobs destroyed the Hazíratu'l-Quds in Mihán-du-´Ab followed by the burning or looting of 80 homes and the murder of two believers, a father and son who bodies were dragged through the streets, cut into pieces and consigned to the flames.

Throughout the country the hostility towards the Bahá'ís resulted in 4 deaths, the loss of millions in property and the displacement of some 700 people.

The National Spiritual Assembly of Iran instituted a special fund for relief of the needy and suffering. [BN 136 April 1979 p2-3]

The murder of Major-General Ali Mohammad Khademi (b. 16 December, 1913 in Jahrom, Fars.) After a brilliant career in the military he became head of Iran's national airline. In 16 years he transformed it into a world-class airline with international connections.
General Khademi was killed in his home. Despite witness accounts by his wife and the soldiers assigned to his home, the government controlled media called his murder a “suicide”, although several international media outlets, such as the New York Times, reported on his murder. Among Iranian Baha’is, General Khademi held the highest ranking leadership post in a public institution. His religious affiliation, which was not a secret, was the cause of fierce opposition by a number of Muslim clergy.
An investigation into his murder named three members of “the joint anti-terror committee”, one of whom was identified at the Military Command by Bahiyyih Moayyed as the shooter of her husband. Despite these individuals’ identification and arrest by the Military Command, none was tried or punished. Later on, The National Security and Intelligence Agency (SAVAK) detained Bahiyyih Moayyed for about one month to force her to declare that her husband had committed suicide. She refused. [Wikipedia; Iran Press Watch 19724; Iran News]

Bahá’í cemeteries across Iran are confiscated, including the cemetery in Tihrán, which contains the graves of several Hands of the Cause and other distinguished Bahá’ís and several thousand other graves of Bahá’ís.

Revolutionary Guards raid the offices of Nawnahálán, a Bahá’í investment company, and the Umaná’ Corporation, a foundation for the purchase and maintenance of Bahá’í properties, and impound the keys. [BW18:252]

In the weeks following, the offices are occupied by the Revolutionary Guards and the staff are dismissed. [BW18:252]

The House of the Báb in Shíráz was attacked and substantially demolished by a crowd accompanied by 25 Revolutionary Guards apparently under the clergyman in charge of the local religious endowments department. [BBD108; BI11; BW18:253]

The European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities adopt resolutions on the plight of the Bahá’ís in Iran. [BW19:38]

Seven members of the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Hamadan were executed by firing squad. These members were: Mr. Muhammad (Suhrab) Habibi, Mr. Muhammad-Baqir (Suhayl) Habibi, Mr. Husayn Khandil, Mr. Tarazu’llah Khuzayn, Mr. Husayn Mutlaq, Dr. Firuz Na‘imi, and Dr. Nasir Vafa’i. The ribs of Tarazu’llah Khuzayn were crushed, and his hands were slashed. His legs and thighs had been pierced with a bayonet, and the injuries had turned his skin black and the tissues were swollen. [He was sixty-four when he died.] Suhrab Habibi’s back had been branded with a hot ring – his own – and he had severe burns. The fingers of Husayn Khandil were slashed and his abdomen had been cut open. Dr. Na‘imi’s back had been broken and Dr. Vafa’i’s thighs had been cut open; Suhayl Habibi’s shoulders had been broken and smashed. Hossein Mutlaq had not been tortured but his body showed the greatest number of bullet wounds. [Iran Press Watch]

The Bahá'í cemetery in Tehran was seized "by order of the Revolutionary Court. Five caretakers and eight temporary workers were arrested and the cemetery was closed. [Mess63-86p510]

The Baha’i cemetery, known as “Golestan-i-Javid” – the Eternal Garden – was confiscated. Ten years later, the City of Tehran demolished the cemetery in order to build the Khavaran Cultural Complex. In accordance with Shi’a jurisprudence, the conversion for the purpose of so-called “improvement” of a cemetery is only permissible after 30 years, but in this case only ten years had passed. The construction of the Khavaran Cultural Centre required deep excavation and the disinterment of more than 1,000 bodies. The design for the sunken yard and the vast basement of this complex was in reality a modern solution to the doctrinal problem of cleansing the soil of the “contamination” of the “unclean” remains of Bahá'ís. During the excavation and recycling of the soil, the remains of the “non-believer” Bahá'ís were apparently used in the foundation for the road and a new overpass. [Iran Press Watch 11 June 2018]

The Universal House of Justice announced that the House of Bahá’u’lláh in Tákur, Núr, Iran, was confiscated by the Revolutionary Government in the spring of 1979, had been totally demolished and the site offered for sale by auction. [BW18:289; BW19:42]

Eight of the nine members of the replacement National Spiritual Assembly of Iran were executed. They replaced the members who and been arrested and who "disappeared" the previous August. i[BI13; BW19:43]

The persecution of the Bahá’ís of Iran continues throughout the year. [BW18:92]

Thirty–two Bahá’ís are executed or otherwise killed. [BW19:232]

BW18:293–4 shows a slightly different, incorrect list.

For pictures of the martyrs see BW18:295–305 and BW19:236–46.

For a list of resolutions adopted by the United Nations, regional bodies, national and provincial governments, and other actions taken, see BW18:92–6 and BW19:44–6.

For a list of the actions taken by the Bahá’í International Community, Bahá’í institutions and others see BW18:345–52, 420–4.

See the Message from the Universal House of Justice dated 26 January 1982 for a summation of the steps taken by the coordinated Bahá'í community to expose the crimes of the Iranian regime and to bring pressure to have the persecutions stop.

The Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the United States House of Representatives hears the testimony of six witnesses concerning the persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran. [BW18:172]

Authorities arrested 45 Baha’is in Shiraz on the order of the prosecutor. On October 30 another 40 Baha’is were arrested. In all cases, they were arrested simply because of their religious beliefs. Some were later released but many of those arrested were subjected to interrogation and excruciating torture. The interrogations and torture were carried out to extract information about Baha’i organizations and to force prisoners to renounce their faith and convert to Islam.
The Revolutionary Court of Shiraz sent 22 of those arrested to the gallows. The executions began on January 1, 1983, with the killing of Hedayatollah Siavoshi. The last of the group to die was Soheil Houshmand on June 28, 1983. The oldest among the executed Baha’is was Abdolhossein Azadi, 66, and the youngest was Mona Mahmoudinejad, a high school student of 17. The entire Eshraghi family — father, mother and daughter — were executed. Also executed were a mother and son, Nosrat and Bahram Yaldaie, and a young couple, Jamshid and Tahereh Siavoshi. Yadollah, the father of 17-year-old Mona Mahmoudinejad, was also killed.
Ahmad Sabet Sarvestani was the only one among them who died in prison as a result of torture before he could be hanged. [Iran Press Watch 19466]

The persecution of the Bahá’ís of Iran continued throughout the year. [BW18:92; BW19:177–226]

Twenty–nine Bahá’ís were executed or otherwise killed. [BW19:232–3]

All Bahá'í elected and appointed institutions were banned by the government in this year; most of the members of the previous three national governing councils having successively been executed. In the absence of a national governing council (known as a “National Spiritual Assembly”), the ad hoc leadership group, called the “Friends in Iran,” (Yaran) was formed with the full knowledge of the government. The various governments in power in Iran since 1983 had always been aware of this group. In fact, over the years government officials have routinely had dealings with the members of this group, albeit often informally. [BWNS694]

For pictures of the martyrs see BW18:295–305 and BW19:236–46.

For a list of resolutions adopted by the United Nations, regional bodies, national and provincial governments, and other actions taken, see BW18:92–6 and BW19:44–6.

For a list of the actions taken by the Bahá’í International Community, Bahá’í institutions and others see BW18:352–6, 424–5.

During its first decade in power, the Islamic regime openly persecuted and killed Bahá'ís. These persecutions, however, caused reaction in the international community. In response to the international calls for the persecutions to be stopped, Siyyid Husayn Musawi, then the attorney general of Iran, declared that the Bahá'ís were not being harassed for their religious beliefs but because they were Israel spies. This was despite the fact that by that time it had become plainly obvious that the attorney general’s so-called “spies” could avoid maltreatment and persecution by openly denouncing their faith. The Bahá'í community forcefully denied the charges and challenged the attorney general to produce evidence to back his allegations. [Iran Press Watch 1407]

In Shiraz, ten Bahá'í women ranging in age from 17 to 57, were hanged. All of the women had been tortured and interrogated in the months prior to their execution. The youngest of these martyrs was Mona Mahmudnizhad, a 17-year-old schoolgirl who had been beaten on the soles of her feet, kissed the hands of her executioner and placed the hangman's rope around her own throat. The names of the others executed were Zarrin Muqimi-Abyanih, 28, Ruya Ishraqi, a 23-year-old veterinary student, Shahin Dalvand, 25, a sociologist; Izzat Janami Ishraqi, 57, a homemaker; Mahshid Nirumand, 28, who had qualified for a degree in physics but had it denied her because she was a Bahá'í, Simin Sabiri, 25; Tahirih Arjumandi Siyavushi, 30, a nurse; Akhtar Thabit, 25, also a nurse; Nusrat Ghufrani Yalda'i, 47, a mother and member of the local Bahá'í Spiritual Assembly. [Hanged for teaching “Sunday school”]

Seyyed Hussein Musavi Tabrizi, the Attorney General of Iran, declared all Bahá'í administrative activities illegal, thus requiring the dissolution of the National Spiritual Assembly of Iran, along with some 400 Local Assemblies which operated under its jurisdiction. [Iran Press Watch]

In response to the Iranian authorities banning all Bahá'í administrative and community activities and the making of membership in a Bahá'í assembly a criminal offence, as their last act the National Spiritual Assembly of Iran sent an open letter to the Prosecutor General of the Islamic Revolution refuting the false charges made against the Bahá’ís and informing him of their willingness to obey the government and disband the Bahá'í administration. [BW19:43]

In a gesture of good will and in accordance with their law of obedience to the government the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Iran and all local assemblies were dissolved. In its place, they formed groups of three in cities and villages called Khadimeen (“Servants”), and on the national level named the Yaran-e Iran to address the immediate needs of the community such as births, marriages, divorces, burial ceremonies and other services. [BW19:62]

Iran’s hugely unsuccessful attempt to convince the international community that Bahá'ís were indeed spies was probably one of the reasons that convinced Iranian officials to review Iran’s contemporary history. The aim of this review was in no way to reconsider age-old beliefs and assumptions, but to generate so-called “objective” facts and data which would ultimately serve to justify those assumptions. It was in light of this conviction that, the Institute for Cultural Research and Studies was founded "with a mandate to maintain, organize and catalogue valuable historical documents acquired during and after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. In 1996, it was replaced by the Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies (IICHS), a professional research center devoted to the study of contemporary Iranian history. Its objective is to undertake various research projects regarding social, political, economic and cultural aspects of post-eighteenth-century Iran, using its collection of primary sources."
Another such organization, the Political Studies and Research Institute, was founded in 1988.
[Iran Press Watch 1407; the institute's website]

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopts a resolution asking its chairman to appoint a new special representative to report to the General Assembly in November 1986 on the human rights situation in Iran, including the situation of the Bahá’ís. [BINS153:12]

Faced with unrelenting religious persecution involving a wide range of human rights violations, the Bahá'í Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) was founded in response to the Iranian government's continuing campaign to deny Iranian Bahá'ís access to higher education.
BIHE developed several unique features which have become its defining strengths. Courses were delivered at the outset by correspondence, soon complemented by in-person classes and tutoring. Later on, leading-edge communication and education technologies were included. In addition, an affiliated global faculty (AGF) was established that comprised of hundreds of accredited professors from universities outside Iran who assisted BIHE as researchers, teachers and consultants.
The BIHE was to evolve such that it could offer 38 university-level programs across 5 faculties and continued to develop and deliver academic programs in Sciences, Engineering, Business and Management, Humanities, and Social Sciences. It provided and continues to provide its students with the necessary knowledge and skills to not only persevere and succeed in their academic and professional pursuits, but to be active agents of change for the betterment of the world.
The BIHE's commitment to high academic standards, international collaboration and its innovative teaching-learning environment has been increasingly recognized as graduates excelled in post graduate studies internationally. [See list] These unique strengths of BIHE, together with the top-ranking marks of its students, have helped secure its graduates places at over 87 prestigious universities and colleges in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia (India).
[Closed Doors, Chapter IV; BIHE]

Three members of the Yaran-e Iran, Mr. Jamaluddin Khanjani, Mr. Hasan Mahboobi and Mr. Changeez Fanaeyan, along with two other Bahá'í citizens, were arrested. After spending 59 days in jail, they were released on November 11th. One of the two Baha’is arrested with the Yaran, Mr. Bahman Samandari, was jailed and later executed in March of 1991. Authorities announced that his incarceration and execution was in connection to the 1987 case. Mr. Hasan Mahboobi was killed in a hit-and-run accident as he was heading to a meeting of the Yaran in August 1992. After the release of the Yaran-e Iran until their next arrest in May 2008, the Iranian government was in close contact with them and had complete and detailed knowledge of all Baha’i activities. On that basis Baha’is were able to refute the charges of “illegal activities” or “illegal organization” against the security of the nation. [Iran Press Watch 10561]

The Universal House of Justice is elected for the sixth time at the International Convention held in Haifa. Delegates from 148 National/Regional Assemblies participated. [BINS176; VV97]

David Hofman and H. Borrah Kavelin announced their retirement. [VV97]

A gift of a large bowl of 120 roses was received from the Bahá'í of Iran.

Mr. Hooper Dunbar, born in the United States, was a film actor in Hollywood before moving to Central and South America where he taught arts and English. He is an accomplished painter. He was first elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Nicaragua in 1961. He later served as a Continental Counsellor before being appointed to the International Teaching Centre in 1973.
[BWNS208]

For the first time a representative of the United Nations was able to officially meet with a representative of the proscribed Bahá'í community in Irán. The report to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights resulted in a resolution being adapted on Irán in a session held in Geneva. [AWH76]

The US Senate unanimously adopted a concurrent resolution condemning Irán's continued repression of the Bahá'ís calling for their complete emancipation. This was the fourth congressional appeal. [VV60]

In Iran, a secret government memorandum (known as the Golpaygani Memorandum) was drawn up by Iran's Supreme Revolutionary Cultural Council and signed by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, which provided a blueprint of the policies and actions to which the Bahá'í community of Iran was to be subjugated. The memorandum demanded a shift in Iran's stance towards Bahá'ís from overt persecution to a more covert policy aimed at depleting the Iranian Bahá'í community's economic and cultural resources. This was a change in the policy for the Islamic regime which had openly persecuted and killed Bahá'ís during its first decade in power and had accused them of being spies for various foreign powers. The document also called for “countering and destroying their [Baha’is’] cultural roots abroad.” [Iran Press Watch 1407]
Signed by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the memorandum established a subtle government policy aimed at essentially grinding the community into nonexistence by

forcing Bahá'í children to have a strong Islamic education,

pushing Bahá'í adults into the economic periphery and forcing them from all positions of power or influence, and

requiring that Bahá'í youth "be expelled from universities, either in the admission process or during the course of their studies, once it becomes known that they are Bahá'ís."

This document might have remained secret had it not been divulged to Reynaldo Galindo Pohl, the Salvadoran diplomat who served as the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran between 1986 and 1995. Professor Pohl disclosed the document in 1993 during a session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (now replaced by the Human Rights Council). [BWNS575]

The martyrdom of Mr. Bahman Samandari in the Evin prison in Tehran. Mr. Samandari was executed with no advance notice and in the absence of due process. A 52 year-old businessman from a distinguished Bahá'í family, he was buried secretly on 20 March 1992 and his family was not notified until 5 April 1992. This was the first execution in three and one-half years. It belied the public position taken by the Iránian government that the Bahá'ís were not being persecuted for their religious beliefs. [AWH118-9, VV126]

Reynaldo Galindo Pohl, the United Nations' special representative in charge of monitoring the human rights situation in Iran, reveals a secret document written by Iran's Supreme Revolutionary Cultural Council providing evidence that the Iranian Government has formulated a plan to oppress and persecute the Bahá'í community both in Iran and abroad. [BW92–3:139; BW93–4:154]

At the 49th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights, the United Nations in Geneva released a report providing evidence that the Iránian Government has established a secret plan approved by Irán's highest ranking officials including both President Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ayatollah Khomeini's successor, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, to oppress and persecute the Bahá'í community both in Irán and abroad. Galindo Pohl, special representative in charge of monitoring the human rights situation in Iran, highlights the contents of the secret document written by Iran's Supreme Revolutionary Cultural Council. [BW92–3:139; BW94–5:134] [from Bahá'í Community of Canada Department of Public Affairs press release dated 25 February, 1993]

The first International Medical/Surgical Conference of Tirana is held under the auspices of Health for Humanity and the University of Tirana, attended by more than 400 Albanian physicians. [BINS343:2–3]

Shahram Reza'i, a conscript in the army, was shot in the head by his superior officer at a military base near Rasht, Iran. The officer, who said the bullets were fired in error, was released a few days after a court excused him from paying the blood money normally required in such cases because the dead soldier was a Bahá'í.
[One Country Jul-Sep 1998 Vol 10 Issue 2]

Mr. Ruhu'llah Rawhani, a 52-year-old medical supplies salesman was hanged in Mashhad solely for religious reasons. Later that morning, Mr. Rawhani's family was summoned to collect his body and required, despite their protests, to complete the burial within one hour, under the supervision of Government intelligence agents.

In 1984, Mr. Rawhani was arrested and imprisoned for more than a year. According to an account given by Mr. Rawhani's relatives in the Australian Bahá'í News, Mr. Rawhani was tortured during his first imprisonment. He was arrested a second time about four years ago. The charge was apparently related to his work in the conduct of purely religious activities, such as prayer meetings and children's classes. He was released after 24 hours.

Mr. Rawhani was arrested for a third time in September 1997 and placed in solitary confinement in Mashhad. He had been accused of "converting" a woman from Islam to the Bahá'í Faith. The woman, however, denied that she had converted; she explained that her mother was a Bahá'í and that she herself had been raised as a Bahá'í. She was not arrested.

In an orchestrated and synchronized plan the authorities ransacked the homes of many Bahá'ís across Iran. All religious and nonreligious books were confiscated. Many other household items such as recording devices, videos and personal effects such as family pictures were seized. [Iran Press Watch 2008/10/19/ (website no longer available]

Starting this date until October 2nd, in Iran, government raids on 500 private homes and the arrest of some 30 faculty members in efforts to close the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education, a decentralized university that aimed to give Bahá’í students access to the education they have been otherwise denied.

The Institute offered Bachelor's degrees in ten subject areas: applied chemistry, biology, dental science, pharmacological science, civil engineering, computer science, psychology, law, literature and accounting. Within these subject areas, which were administered by five "departments," the Institute was able to offer more than 200 distinct courses each term.

In the beginning, courses were based on correspondence lessons developed by Indiana University, which was one of the first institutions in the West to recognize the Bahá'í Institute for Higher Education. Later on, course offerings were developed internally.

Teaching was done principally via correspondence, or, for specialized scientific and technical courses and in other special cases, in small-group classes that were usually held in private homes. Over time, however, the Institute was able to establish a few laboratories, operated in privately owned commercial buildings in and around Teheran, for computer science, physics, dental science, pharmacology, applied chemistry and language study. The operations of these laboratories were kept prudently quiet, with students cautioned not to come and go in large groups that might give the authorities a reason to object.

Among other significant human rights conventions, Iran is a party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 16 December 1966. Parties to this Covenant "recognize the right of everyone to education" and more specifically that "higher education shall be made equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means." [“The New York Times” article dated 29 October, 1998,
One Country Oct-Dec 1998 Vol 10 Issue 3]

The Islamic Revolutionary Court in Isfahan sentenced Sina Hakiman (10 yrs), Farzad Khajeh Sharifabadi (7 yrs), Havivullhh Ferdosian Najafabadi (7 yrs) and Ziaullah Mirzapanah (3yrs) for crimes against national security. All four were among the thirty-six who were arrested in late September and in early October, 1998 in a concerted government crackdown against Bahá’í education in fourteen cities in Iran.

It is reported that over 500 homes were raided in an attempt to crack down on the Bahá’í Open University. Files, equipment and other property used by the University were seized. From report by Human Rights Watch Academic Freedom Committee.

The publication of History of Bahá'ísm in Iran by Abdullah Shahbazi, the then head of the Political Studies and Research Institute, part of the Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies. In his book he advanced the theory of the alliance between Bahá'ísm and Zionism. [Iran Press Watch 1407]

The passing of Hand of the Cause of God Ali Akbar Furútan in Haifa at the age of 98. [BWNS261, BW'03-‘04pg227]

Born in Sabzivar, Iran, on 29 April 1905.

Moved with his family to Ashgabat in what was then Russian Turkestan (now part of Turkmenistan), and, through his years of school and university, he took an active part in the work of the Baha'i communities of Ashgabat, Baku, Moscow, and other parts of Russia.

In 1930 expelled from the Soviet Union during the Stalinist persecution of religion and from that time on played an ever more significant role in the work and administration of the Iranian Baha'i community. [BW03-04p227-230]

Shoghi Effendi had appointed him among the first contingent on the 24th of December, 1951. [MoCxxiii]

Shirin Ebadi, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the first Muslim woman to win the coveted distinction.

For a long time she has fought for the rights of women and children in Iran and it is most fitting that she, a woman lawyer who dared to speak out against the sexist Iranian regime, be praised and recognised by the world.

She is an author and also the founder of the Association for Support of Children's Rights in Iran. [Nobel Peace Prize 2003]

In 2002 she founded the Defender of Human Rights Center and in 2009 she was forced to flee into exile after briefly serving as legal counsel for the imprisoned Yaran. Mrs. Ebadi was threatened, intimidated, and vilified in the news media after taking on their case and was not given access to their case files. [BWNS694]

In Babul, Iran, the destruction of the gravesite of Quddús, a house-like structure that marked the resting place of Mullá Muhammad-'Ali Barfurushi, was began and halted temporarily after local Bahá'ís demanded to see a legal permit for the demolition work. Later it was discovered that the dismantling of the gravesite had continued surreptitiously over a period of days until the structure was entirely demolished despite protests from Bahá'ís at the local, national, and international levels.

This measure came soon after the international community failed to offer a resolution on the human rights situation in Iran at the United Nations. [One Country Vol.15 Issue 4]

The release of Mr. Bihnam Mithaqi and Mr. Kayvan Khalajabadi who had been imprisoned on April 29, 1989, for "association with Baha'i institutions."

They were both originally sentenced to eight years' imprisonment, but upon appeal, their sentences were commuted to three years' imprisonment plus 50 lashes. Both prisoners appealed this decision, and on April 30, 1991, the Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced them to death. On February 18, 1996, the Supreme Court of Iran rejected numerous appeals and confirmed the death sentences. In February 2001, after further judicial reviews, the chief of the judicial branch reduced their sentences to 15 years in prison and set February 2004 for their release. [Referenced web site has ceased operation. Human Rights Watch (some dates differ from this source)]

The completion of the destruction of the gravesite of Mulla Muhammad-'Ali Barfurushi, known as Quddus (The Most Holy). Quddus was the foremost disciple of the Báb, the Prophet-Herald of the Bahá'í Faith. [BWNS293]

The passing of Mr Aziz Ismayn Yazdi in Vancouver, Canada at the age of 94. Aziz Yazdi lived in Egypt, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Great Britain, Uganda, Kenya, Israel, and finally Canada. In 1968 he was appointed to the Continental Board of Counsellors in Central and East Africa and was an inaugural member of the International Teaching Centre in Haifa. [BWNS297, BW'03-‘04pg239]

United Nations General Assembly has passed a resolution expressing "serious concern" over the human rights situation in Iran, making specific mention of the ongoing persecution of the Baha'i community there.

It called on Iran to "eliminate all forms of discrimination based on religious grounds" and took note of the recent upsurge of human rights violations against the Baha'is of Iran.

Specifically, the resolution noted the "continuing discrimination against persons belonging to minorities, including Christians, Jews, and Sunnis, and the increased discrimination against the Baha'is, including cases of arbitrary arrest and detention, the denial of free worship or of publicly carrying out communal affairs, the disregard of property rights, the destruction of sites of religious importance, the suspension of social, educational, and community-related activities, and the denial of access to higher education, employment, pensions, and other benefits." [BWNS341]

The official campaign to malign the name of the Faith in Iran through the mass media, newspaper articles and web sites, through radio and television programs and through films, as per the provision implemented in 1991, escalated in 2005.
[Open Letter dated 4 March, 2009]

This document was authored by Major General Seyyed Hassan Firuzabadi in his capacity as Chief of the Headquarters of the Armed Forces of Iran. His letter is addressed to a range of military and security agencies, including the Commander of the Revolutionary Guard, the Commander of Basij militia, the Commander of Law Enforcement and the Commander of the Armed Forces inter alia. The letter instructs these agencies to ‘acquire a comprehensive and complete report of all the activities of these sects (including political, economic, social and cultural) for the purpose of identifying all the individuals of these misguided sects. Therefore, we request that you convey to relevant authorities to, in a highly confidential manner, collect any and all information about the above mentioned activities of these individuals and report it to this Headquarters.’ This extended to children and students, and individual children and young people are identified by their religious beliefs and targeted for ideological harassment, exclusion from education, abuse and even physical assault on some occasions. [See: Faith and a Future]

The death of Mr. Dhabihu'llah Mahrami, 59, who had been held in a government prison in Yazd under harsh physical conditions at the time of his death.

First arrested in 1995, Mr. Mahrami served in the civil service but at the time of his arrest was making a living installing venetian blinds, having been summarily fired from his job like thousands of other Baha'is in the years following the 1979 Iranian revolution. Although Iranian officials have asserted that Mr. Mahrami was guilty of spying for Israel, court records clearly indicate that he was tried and sentenced solely on charge of being an "apostate," a crime which is punishable by death under traditional Islamic law. While Mr. Mahrami had been a lifelong Baha'i, the apostasy charge apparently came about because a civil service colleague, in an effort to prevent Mr. Mahrami from losing his job, submitted to a newspaper an article stating that he had converted to Islam. When it later became clear to Iranian authorities that Mr. Mahrami remained a member of the Baha'i community, they arrested him and charged him with apostasy for allegedly converting from Islam to the Baha'i Faith. On 2 January 1996, he was sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court, a conviction that was later upheld by the Iranian Supreme Court.

The death sentence against Mr. Mahrami stirred an international outcry. The European Parliament, for example, passed a resolution on human rights abuses in Iran, making reference to Mr. Mahrami's case. The governments of Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States also registered objections.
[BWNS415]

For more than two decades young Bahá’ís were barred from entering university through an application process that would require them to deny their faith. Though a modification in the process, achieved through worldwide public pressure, enabled a few hundred to register at the start of the 2006–2007 academic year, their hopes of pursuing higher education were soon dashed because that same year a confidential letter sent from Iran's Ministry of Science, Research and Technology instructed Iranian universities to expel any student who was discovered to be a Bahá'í. The letter refuted previous statements by Iranian officials who had said Bahá'í students in Iran faced no discrimination. [BWNS575]

Letter, from the Trades, Production, and Technical Services Society of Kermanshah to the Iranian Union of Battery Manufacturers, asked the Union to provide a list of members of the Bahá'í sect in their membership. [BWNS488]

Iranian security officials arrested 54 Bahá'ís in the city of Shiraz who were involved in a community service project, many of them in their teens and early 20's. They were not charged and all but three were released within six days. It was the largest mass arrest of Bahá'ís since the 1980's. [New York Times 1 June, 2006]

Iran's Ministry of Interior ordered officials throughout the country to step up the surveillance of Iranian Bahá'ís focusing in particular on their community activities.
In a letter the Ministry requested provincial officials to complete a detailed questionnaire about the circumstances and activities of local Bahá'ís, including their "financial status," "social interactions," and "association with foreign assemblies," among other things.
[BWNS488]

The publication of A Faith Denied: The Persecution of the Bahá'ís of Iran by the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC).
The document reported that the Bahá’í community of Iran were not free to practice their religion, they suffered from
economic and social exclusion, and they had been subjected to executions, arbitrary arrests and the
destruction of their property - all carried out with the support of national judicial, administrative and law
enforcement structures. It also stated that since the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2005, there was
evidence to suggest a new cycle of repression may be beginning.
[A Faith Denied]

The Education Department Management Security Office in Shiraz circulated a form to be completed for all students who belong to religious minorities and the "perverse Bahaist sect". The form requires not only detailed information about the student and his or her parents, but also detailed information on all the student's siblings. [Provisional Translation of the text of the letter]

This increase in the activities of the Yaran-e Iran mandated the addition of more members; as a result, the number of members reached seven. Behrooz Tavakoli, Afif Naimi, Jamaluddin Khanjani, Saeid Rezaie, Fariba Kamal Abadi, Vahid Tizfahm and Mahvash Sabet were the last leaders of the Baha’i community of Iran. After their arrest, the responsibility of leading the community was put on the shoulders of all Baha’is as individuals. [Iran Press Watch 10561]

In a confidential letter from the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology to the Central Security Office of Payám-i-Núr University in the Province of Sístán and Balúchistán, they instructed that Bahá’í applicants for the Farágír (preparatory] courses be prevented from enrollment and that the names of those who do try to enrol be forwarded to their office.
[English translation]

In a memorandum from the office of Intelligence and National Security to the commanders of police forces of the regional provincial municipalities instructions were given to monitor the business activities of Bahá'ís, to suppress the operations of business that would yield a high income, to prohibit
businesses related to culture, advertising and commerce as well as any business related to cleanliness (tahárat) such as grocery shops and ice cream parlours and any others where the handling of food or personal care was involved.
[Letter from the Public Inteligence and Security Force]

A letter marked "Confidential" was sent from the academic counseling and higher education office at Guilán University to the director of university academic affairs, asking for the immediate discharge of a Bahá'í student stating that she was legally banned from continuing her education.

served on the National Spiritual Assembly and the Auxiliary Board in the Cradle of the Faith

served as the executive director of the Nawnahalan Company

among first appointed to institution of the Counsellors created by the Universal House of Justice in June 1968

relocated to the United Kingdom in the early 1980s

contributed greatly to the development of the Institution of Huququ'llah through his services as a Deputy. [UK BAHA'I NEWS EMAIL SERVICE message from the National Spiritual Assembly nsa@bahai.org.uk 24 May 2007]

An event was organized by the Defenders of Human Rights Centre in Iran to publicize the plight of all those who are deprived of access to education. The Bahá'ís were only one of many groups whose situations the event highlighted. The Bahá'í representative made a 5-10 minute presentation describing the difficult circumstances faced by Bahá'í students, who have persistently been denied access to post-secondary education. Journalists from within the country and abroad covered the proceedings. [The reference website is no longer in existence.]

The Universal House of Justice responded to a communications from the Bahá'ís attending the event of the 2nd of October advising the Friends in Iran to explore contacts with other Iranian individuals and organizations sympathetic to the plight of the Bahá'ís and to continue the effort to secure legal representation for the Bahá'í students. It also encouraged them to convey the gratitude of the Iranian Bahá'ís to the Defenders of Human Rights Centre. [The referenced website is no longer in existence.]

Mahvash Sabet – a schoolteacher and mother of two and a member of the national-level administrative group for Iran, the Yaran – was arrested having been summoned to Mashhad to discuss some matters regarding a Bahá'í burial. She subsequently spent 175 days in solitary confinement. On the 26th of May she was moved to Evin prison in Tehran. [BWNS Special Report]
This arrest marked a new wave of persecution of the Bahá'í Faith in Iran.

The six men and women, Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, Mr. Vahid Tizfahm. and Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi, all members of the national-level group that helped see to the minimum needs of Bahá’ís in Iran were arrested in their homes in Tehran. Mrs. Kamalabadi, Mr. Khanjani, and Mr. Tavakkoli have been previously arrested and then released after periods ranging from five days to four months. [BWNS632, Report]

Iranian Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri issued a fatwa stating that, since (Bahá'ís) were the citizens of Iran, they had the rights of a citizen and to live in the country. Furthermore, they must benefit from the Islamic compassion which is stressed in Quran and by the religious authorities. [The National (UAE)]

The arrest of the Baha’i leadership took place in the context of a severely and rapidly escalating systemic campaign of attacks against the Bahá'í community that included the creation and circulation of lists of Bahá'ís with instructions that the activities of the members of the community be secretly monitored; dawn raids on Bahá'í homes and the confiscation of personal property; a dramatic increase over the previous two months in the number of Bahá'í s arrested; daily incitement to hatred of the Bahá'í s in all forms of government-sponsored mass media; the holding of anti-Bahá'í symposia and seminars organized by clerics and followed by orchestrated attacks on Bahá'í homes and properties in the cities and towns where such events are held; destruction of Bahá'í cemeteries throughout the country and demolition of Bahá'í holy places and shrines; acts of arson against Bahá'í homes and properties; debarring of Bahá'ís from access to higher education and, increasingly, vilification of Bahá'í children in their classrooms by their teachers; the designation of numerous occupations and businesses from which Bahá'ís are debarred; refusal to extend bank loans to Bahá'ís; sealing Bahá'í shops; refusing to issue or renew business licenses to Bahá'ís; harassment of landlords of Bahá'í business premises to get them to evict their tenants; and threats against Muslims who associate with Bahá'ís. [Iran Press Watch 1109]

Mrs. Mahvash Sabet and Mrs. Fariba Kamalabadi were permitted to make short phone calls to their families. Later it was confirmed that Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, Mr. Afif Naeimi, Mr. Saeid Rezaie, Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Mr. Vahid Tizfahm also have made brief phone calls to their families.
[BIC Report]

The results of the nationwide university entrance examination were made available on the National Organization for Educational Assessment in Iran. Most of the Bahá'í applicants found that they were rejected and received an incomplete file message. For the 2007-2008 academic year some 800 of 1000 Bahá'í students were rejected in the same manner. [Iranian, BWNS657]

After enduring 3.5 months of solitary confinement, the imprisoned members of the Yaran were transferred to a regular prison cell, still at the notorious Evin Prison, where they could interact with other prisoners. A month later, they were separated from other prisoners; the five men have been kept in one cell and the two women in another, isolated from others. Their status was still noted as “temporary detention”. [Iran Press Watch 1505]

The destruction of some 2,500 trees and an irrigation system in the Bahá'í Cemetery of Isfahan, known as Gulestan-e Javid (Eternal Garden). Damage was also done to a building on the site and traffic and other directional signs were pulled up. [Iran Press Watch]

The Bahá'í Cemetery of Isfahan, known as Gulestan-e Javid [Eternal Garden], was attacked by a certain group and many trees and gardens raised with enormous difficulty in that desert-like field were cut and destroyed. Windows of a hall at the end of the cemetery were broken and the walls were blackened by incendiary materials.
[Iran Press Watch 48]

The Universal House of Justice sent a message of encouragement to the besieged Bahá'í Community of Iran. In the message they noted that:

"a
growing portion of the populace praises your courage, audacity, patience and steadfastness before the rising tide of tribulations."

They praised "the resolve shown by the vast majority of believers, preferring to live with hardship than to seek refuge in other countries," (something which has been)..."seen by many as a sign of their love for their homeland, has earned great respect."

They dispelled the notion of Bahá'ís being agents of the state of Israel.

They reiterated that the Bahá'ís have no feelings of malevolence against Islam. On the contrary, Bahá'u'lláh has shown reverence for both Muhammad and Imam Ali, even revealing a tablet of visitation for him.

They encouraged the continued unity of the community and faith in the constructive powers of the Faith and on an individual level, “a virtuous life and a goodly behaviour”. "...the light of truth will dispel the darkness of ceceit".

Ameed Saadat sat Iran's 2008 national university entrance examination. He passed was accepted to study hotel management at Goldasht College in Kelardasht, Mazandaran, and began his studies. The college's registration form required students to identify their religion. Ameed, being honest had identified himself as a Bahá'í. The day before his first-term examinations were to begin the college director told Ameed that he was being expelled and would therefore not be allowed to sit the examinations. The following day, 26 students refused to take the end-of-term exam in protest against Ameed's expulsion. [Iran Press Watch]

Over 200 articles appeared in the Iranian newspaper Kayhan* in the years 2007-2009 that attacked every aspect of the history of the Bahá'í Faith, its personalities, beliefs and community life. Such messages were reinforced on television, in mass marches and in Friday sermons. Under government tutelage, the media served to endanger their already highly curtailed existence.
*Kayhan is state-funded and has a role comparable to "Pravda" under Stalin." [Iran Press Watch 16 February, 2009]

The publication of "We are Ashamed," an open letter from a group of academics, writers, artists, journalists and Iranian activists throughout the world to the Bahá'í community. This letter has been signed by a large number of the most prominent Iranian intellectuals. [Iran Press Watch 998, Text of Letter in pdf]

An Iranian ISNA news agency report quoting Tehran’s deputy public prosecutor Hassan Haddad reported that a case will be sent to the revolutionary courts in the coming week accusing the seven Bahá'ís of “espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic republic.”

For the first time after two decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran officially accused the leaders of the Bahá'í community of Iran of espionage, thus reverting its position to that of the 1980s.
[Iran Press Watch 1407]

The US House of Representatives introduced a resolution condemning the government of Iran for its state-sponsored persecution of its Bahá'í minority and its continued violation of the International Covenants on Human Rights.
[Iran Press Watch 1203]

Iran’s Prosecutor General Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi made the claim that the members of the "banned Baha'i sect" have irrefutable links with Israel and that the seven will be tried on charges of “espionage for Israel, desecrating religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic Republic.” His statement was in reaction to the resolution by the U.S. State Department condemning recent events. [Iran Press Watch 1215]

The Canadian Parliamentary Sub-Committee on Human Rights has adopted a strongly worded motion demanding the immediate release of the seven Baha’i leaders held now for more than nine months without formal charges and no access to lawyers. Appearing before the committee on Thursday were the Bahá'í Community of Canada’s Director of External Affairs, Susanne Tamas, and McGill Law Professor, Payam Akhavan. [Iran Press Watch 1597]

Responding to the public outcry from western nations against Iran for the plight of seven imprisoned Baha’i leaders, Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi, Iran’s Prosecutor-General, stated, “These individuals have accepted the charges [brought against them.” This was later proved to be untrue. Meanwhile, the seven detained Baha’is continued to be deprived of due process and the opportunity to meet with their attorney. [Iran Press Watch 1547]

The Bahá'í International Community at the United Nations sent an open letter to Ayatollah Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi, the Prosecutor-General of Iran, regarding recent measures taken against the Yaran (at the national level) and the Khademin (at the local level). Since the disbanding of the Bahá'í administrative order in Iran, these groups had been functioning in close collaboration with the authorities.

The letter reiterated, in broad strokes, the history of the relationship between the authorities and the Bahá'í community since the revolution and addressed the accusations leveled against them as well as the deliberate misrepresentations of the community. The letter closed with numerous examples of the support for the community from the Iranian population.

The first meeting of the imprisoned Yaran took place and was in person. It is customary in Iran to allow prisoners to meet with their families during the two-week Naw-Ruz festivities. A second visit with their families was also granted on April 6 but this time the families were allowed to meet with their loved-ones from behind glass windows.
[Iran Press Watch 2126]

A fourth charge was leveled against the Yaran: “Aiding, teaching and propagating the Baha’i religion in Iran.” This is tantamount to “mufsed fel-arz” [corrupt on earth] which has historically carried harsh consequences, including the death penalty. [Iran Press Watch 2709]

After a year in jail without formal charges the Bahá'í leaders faced an additional accusation, 'the spreading of corruption on earth,' which goes by the term 'Mofsede fel-Arz' in Persian and carries the threat of death under the penal code of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Prior to this new charge they had been accused of 'espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic Republic.' [BIC Report]
The anticipated sham trial of the seven Baha’is leaders provoked a strong condemnation throughout the world press. In almost every language and in every country of the world, journalists, diplomats, prominent citizens and many others denounced the intentions of the Iranian government to try these innocent citizens on baseless charges of: “espionage for Israel”, “insulting religious sanctities” and “”propaganda against the Islamic Republic.” [World Press on the Trial of the Seven Baha’i Leaders]

The trial of Iran's seven Bahá'í leaders, Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Mahvash Sabet, Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Vahid Tizfahm began in Tehran. The seven were charged with "espionage", "propaganda activities against the Islamic order", "the establishment of an illegal administration", "cooperation with Israel", "sending secret documents outside the country", "acting against the security of the country", and "corruption on earth". [BWNS748, BWNS778]

Seven imprisoned Baha'i leaders appeared in court for a second session of their trial.
The session was once again closed and family members were not permitted in the courtroom.
The hearing lasted just over one hour but did not go beyond procedural issues. No date was given for any future sessions.
[BWNS756]

The seven imprisoned Iranian Baha'i leaders arrived at the court for their third appearance and their families were not allowed to enter, signalling a closed hearing.
Inside the courtroom, however, the prisoners saw numerous officials and interrogators from the Ministry of Intelligence – along with a film crew which had already set up cameras.
Concerned over the presence of non-judicial personnel in a supposedly closed hearing, the Baha'is – with the agreement of their attorneys – declined to be party to the proceedings.
The judge adjourned the session and did not announce a date for continuing the trial.
[BWNS767]

New information was obtained regarding the conditions in which the seven Bahá'í prisoners were being held-two small rancid-smelling cells. They had not been given beds or bedding. There was no natural light in their cells so when the light was turned off during the day they are held in darkness. [Video "The Story of the Baha'i Seven" 13 May 2016 BIC]

Some fifty homes of Bahá'í citizens in Ivel village in Mazandaran were destroyed by trucks and loaders. Their complaint about the destruction of their homes was ignored and justice authorities gave them no response. It is believed that the Ministry of Information, the Security agencies and some religious authorities were behind the scheme. According to owners of the homes, they did not know from where the order was given but local residents of the village did the deed. {Iran Press Watch 6202]

The imprisonment of seven Baha'i leaders in Iran was extended for a further two months after the lawyers made a request for bail. At this point they had been held for more than two years under a series of successive orders for their 'temporary' detention, which by law, must not exceed two months. The trial of the seven consisted of six brief court appearances and began on 12 January after they had been imprisoned without charge for 20 months. During this period they were allowed barely one hour's access to their legal counsel. The trial concluded on 14 June. [BIC Report]

The sentence of 20 years in prison was announced for members of the "Yaran-i-Iran" or "Friends of Iran" in Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court presided over by Judge Moqayesseh (or Moghiseh)*. The charges were several: "espionage", "collaborating with enemy states", "insulting the sacred", "propaganda against the state" and "forming an illegal group". The prominent civil and human rights lawyer who defended them was Mr Abdolfattah Soltani. He would later serve a 13-year sentence in the Evin Prison for engaging in his profession. Another member of their legal defense team was the attorney Hadi Esmailzadeh who died in 2016 while serving a 4-year prison term for defending human rights cases. After the sentencing the seven Bahá'í leaders were sent to Raja’i prison in the city of Karaj (Gohardasht) , about 50 kilometers west of Tehran. [BWNS789]

Soon after their arrival four of the Yaran were transferred to room 17 in Section 6 of this notorious prison. Section 6 is infamous in human rights circles. It has often been the scene of bloody fighting among prisoners and it is considered extremely dangerous. It is where certain political prisoners are sent to vanish. At first the Mafia-like gangs incarcerated in the same facility began to refer to the Yaran as “infidels”. The authorities have also tried to pressure other prisoners to insult and belittle the newly-arrived Bahá'ís, but it appears that most other prisoners have so far refused to comply with this suggestion. In fact, it is reported that most other prisoners are showing considerable respect to the Baha’is and try to be hospitable. [Iran Press Watch 667]

In the face of the chorus of condemnation for the 20-year sentence for the seven Bahá'í leaders from governments and human rights organizations around the world, the Appeals court reduced the sentences from 20 to 10 years by removing charges such as “Espionage and Collaboration with Israel”. This information was verbally released to Ms. Sabet’s lawyer. [BWNS793, BIC Report]
See Violations of Legal Procedures details on how the treatment of the Yaran (and other Bahá'ís) has violated their legal and constitutional rights.

See Voices of Support for a sampling of expressions of support from international figures and institutions as well as BWNS810.

Amnesty International called for immediate support by asking for messages to be sent to the Head of the Judiciary,
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi. [Amnesty International appeal]

Following the reduction of his sentence, Vahid Tizfahm was transferred to Rajai-Shahr prison, where he remained until his release. Rajai-Shahr is located in the Alborz Province, and was at the time a maximum-security prison, a place for the “dangerous” individuals. According to Iran’s Department of Prisons, Security and Corrections’ Regulations, and based on the principle of Segregation of Crimes, Tizfahm’s transfer to Rajai-Shahr was not legal. [Iran Press Watch 29 March, 2018]

In an open letter to Ayatollah Mohammad Sadeq Larijani, the Head of the Judiciary, the Bahá'í International Community today contrasted the country's persecution of Bahá'ís with Iran's own call for Muslim minorities to be treated fairly in other countries. [BWNS801]

Mahvash Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi were transferred to the notorious Section 200 of Gohardasht Prison. The circumstances of the move raised concerns that it may have been orchestrated as a means of creating an insecure environment that threatens their lives.
Since their arrival at Gohardasht, the Baha'i women – despite their own extremely challenging situation – had nonetheless been a constant source of comfort and hope to other inmates. The prison authorities apparently became alarmed that the two women began to receive signs of respect from a growing number of prisoners. As a justification for the increased harsh treatment, the authorities accused the two of teaching the Baha'i Faith.
While Gohardasht is infamous for its harsh and unsanitary conditions, the Baha'i prisoners were at first kept segregated from some of the more violent elements at the complex. They also had relatively frequent access to outdoor exercise areas. [BWNS807; BWNS821]

The passing of Mrs. Ashraf Khanjani, wife of imprisoned Jamaloddin Khanjani at the age of 81 In Tehran. The couple had been married for more than 50 years. Mr. Khanjani, 77, who was serving a ten-year jail term at Iran's notorious Gohardasht prison, was not granted leave to attend his wife's funeral which was held the next day in Tehran. It attracted between 8,000 and 10,000 mourners from all walks of life. Ministry of Intelligence officers were also reportedly present, filming the proceedings.
Prior to the 1979 Iranian revolution, Mr. Khanjani was a successful factory owner. His brick-making factory – the first automated such facility in Iran – employed several hundred people before he was forced to shut it down and abandon it, because of the persecution he faced as a Bahá'í. The factory was later confiscated by the government.
Mr. Khanjani was able to establish a mechanized farm but the authorities made it difficult for him to operate. Their restrictions extended to his children and relatives and included refusing loans, closing their facilities, limiting business dealings, and banning travel outside Iran.
Mr. Khanjani had been arrested and imprisoned at least three times before his latest incarceration in May 2008. [BWNS811; Iran Press Watch 7454]

Six months after Iran's Appeal Court reduced their sentences from 20 to 10 years, the seven Baha'i leaders were told that the Appeals Court sentence was recognized as being in contrast with the Law and that their original 20-year sentences have been reinstated.
[BWNS814]

Some 39 homes of Bahá'ís associated with the Bahá'í Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) were raided in a coordinated attack. Educator Kamran Mortezaie is now serving a five-year jail term. Mahmoud Badavam, Noushin Khadem, Farhad Sedghi, Riaz Sobhani and Ramin Zibaie are each serving four year prison sentences. The judgments against them cast their activities in support of BIHE as crimes and as “evidence” of their purported aim to subvert the State. Two psychology teachers – Faran Hesami and her husband Kamran Rahimian – were also sentenced to four years in prison. Another BIHE administrator Vahid Mahmoudi was released on 8 January 2012 after his five-year sentence was reportedly suspended. [BWNS910]

Fariba Kamalabadi and Mahvash Sabet were returned to Evin Prison in Tehran. They had spent a brief spell in appalling conditions at Qarchak prison, (from 3 May) some 45 kilometers from Tehran. [BIC Evin; BWNS826]

The five men were still being held under close scrutiny in a wing of Gohardasht prison, reserved for political prisoners.
[BIC Report]

As of this time the Bahá'í community of Tabriz has been prohibited from burying their dead in that city and their bodies were transferred by intelligence officers to the city of Miandoab, in West Azerbaijan province.
[Iran Press Watch 19720]

Launch of Inciting Hatred: Iran's media campaign to demonize Baha'is. The Baha'i International Community prepared and launched a report that documents and analyses more than 400 press and media items over a 16-month period that typify an insidious state-sponsored effort to demonize and vilify Baha'is, using false accusations.

The Universal House of Justice sent a message to the Bahá'ís of Iran near the four-year anniversary of the illegal arrest and imprisonment of the former members of the Yárán and the more recent injustice meted out against the co-workers of the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education (BIHE). [BWNS823, Message from the Universal House of Justice dated 11 May, 2012, In Farsi]

The Baha'i International Community publishes a special report on The Baha'is of Semnan: A Case Study in Religious Hatred. This video report highlights the effect on one community of the Iranian government’s methodical and organized campaign to incite hatred against the Baha'is and eliminate them as a viable social entity.

The Baha'is of Semnan have been the focus in recent years of an intensifying persecution, facing an array of economic, physical and psychological attacks. While these types of attacks on Baha'is are not confined to Semnan, the situation there is noteworthy for its particular intensity and the mobilization and coordination of official and semi-official elements -- including the police, the courts, local officials, and the clergy.

Sangesar’s old Bahá'í cemetery was thoroughly covered in soil and rubble by bulldozers and trucks and all the graves were covered by dirt and rocks so that no more graves could be seen.
[Iran Press Watch 19720]

The publication of the report entitled Violence with Impunity: Acts of Aggression Against Iran's Bahá'í Community published by the Bahá'í International Community. The report documents a rising tide of violence directed against the Iranian Bahá'í community - and the degree to which attackers enjoy complete impunity from prosecution or punishment. From 2005 through 2012, for example, there were 52 cases where Bahá'ís have been held in solitary confinement, and another 52 incidents where Bahá'ís have been physically assaulted. Some 49 incidents of arson against Bahá'í homes and shops, more than 30 cases of vandalism, and at least 42 incidents of cemetery desecration were also documented. [BWNS972]

Mr. Ataollah Rezvani, a well-known Bahá'í in the city of Bandar Abbas was shot and killed in his car. It is of note that a few years before his murder, the Friday prayer Imam had incited the local population against the Bahá'ís, referring to them as un-Islamic. He further called on the people of the city to rise up against the Bahá'í community. [BWNS987, BWNS1031; Iran Press Watch 9306]

Rezvani was shot in the back of the head and his body was found in his car near the railway station on the outskirts of the city. His assailants had forced him to drive to that location. His body was discovered following a search when he failed to return home. [http://publicaffairs.bahai.us/388]

The Bahá'í International Community launched the Five Years Too Many campaign to protest the 20-year prison sentences given to the Bahá'í leaders in Iran, the longest sentence given to prisoners of conscience under the current regime. The harshness of the sentences reflected the Government’s resolve to completely oppress the Iranian Bahá'í community, which faced a systematic, “cradle-to-grave” persecution that was among the most serious examples of state-sponsored religious persecution in the world today.
[Five Years Too Many, BWNS954]

Iranian filmmaker and blogger as well as a former Islamist hardliner who has become an outspoken critic of the government, Mohammad Nourizad, kissed the feet of 4 year old Artin whose parents had been arrested for participation in the Bahá'í Institute for Higher Education. [Wikipedia entry; Faith and a Future p38-39]

Some years later Mr Nourizad repeated this gesture, kissing the feet of a six year old boy named Bashir whose parents, Azita Rafizadeh and Peyman Kushak Baghi had been sentenced to four year prison terms for teaching at the BIHE.

The imprisoned members of the Yaran sent a letter addressed to Iranian President, Dr. Hassan Rouhani in response to the invitation that President Rouhani extended to the citizens of Iran to comment on the draft Charter of Citizens’ Rights on the president’s website.

After confirmation of a court order in Sanandaj and confiscation of the land belonging to the Bahá'ís which had been used as a cemetery, the site was demolished by a bulldozer.
[Iran Press Watch 19720]

In Shiraz, the Revolutionary Guard began excavation of some 200 square meters of the Bahá'í cemetery. The site, which had been in use since the 1920s, had been confiscated by the government in 1983 and the Revolutionary Guard had taken ownership of the site some three years earlier with plans to build a cultural and sports centre. It is the site of the remains of the ten Bahá'í of Shiraz who were hanged in 1983 for the crimes of being Zionists and teaching children's classes. [BWNS993, BWNS994]

The imprisoned Yaran addressed a letter to Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of Human Rights Division of the Judiciary Branch of the Islamic Republic of Iran regarding his claim that “No one is in prison for being a Bahá'í and if Bahá'í s do not commit illegal acts their citizenship rights will be protected”. They reiterated some of the acts of oppression and discrimination, security force encounters and human rights violations imposed on the Bahá'í citizens and have asked the officials to change their view toward citizens and minorities.
The full text of the letter can be viewed at
Iran Press Watch 9946

Despite a worldwide outcry, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards is continuing to destroy an historic Bahá'í cemetery in Shiraz. Between 2005 and 2012 some 42 Bahá'í-owned cemeteries were desecrated in a similar fashion. [BWNS993, BWNS1016]

Vahid Tizfahm, a former member of the imprisoned Yaran, wrote to his son, Samim, in which he recounts the imprisonment and martyrdom of his own father when he was yet a child.
For the full text of the letter see Iran Press Watch10181.

The exclusion of Shadan Shirazi, an exemplary student who placed exceptionally well in the college entrance exams administered to students throughout Iran. The Iranian government deployed new tactics in their treatment of Bahá'í students to deny them access to higher education without raising the concern of the international community. The new procedure entails identifying Bahá'í university applicants and then calling them in so they can quietly be confirmed as ineligible under the government's unjust policies and then be sent away without any documentation or proof that it was because they are Bahá'ís that they were prevented from enrolling.
[BWNS1021]

The premiere of the film To Light a Candle by Iranian-Canadian filmmaker and journalist, Maziar Mahari. The gala in Los Angeles is part of a campaign called "Education is Not a Crime", started in 2014, to highlight the plight of Bahá'í' students in Iran and their recourse to the denial of education, the Bahá'í' Institute of Higher Education. The film is also screened in some 300 locations around the world. [BWNS1041, BWNS1025]

Pressures on Jamaleddin Khanjani’s family had increased since his arrest in 2008. There country home in Semnan was demolished by Security Forces. The family had been given 48 hours to evacuate the house and even though they had succeeded in obtaining a ruling from the Supreme Court to stop the demolition, the home was destroyed. Authorities objected to a house that had been built with a City permit 18 years previously claiming that the owner of this property is unknown and the deed was not acceptable. The farmland, where the house was situated, had belonged to the family for more than 200 years.
Their farm had more than 40 thousand fruit trees, however, in recent years the authorities had blocked the road during harvest time to prevent more than 200-300 Tons of apples and peaches from reaching the market. A few years prior they had demolished a water storage facility that the family had legally constructed (the government permit and other documents were all available). More than 100 million Liters of water had been stored for agricultural purposes. The family had a thirty-year permit for a pasture for their cattle however they were forced to sell some and purchase forage for the remainder.
About two weeks prior the CEO of the family's farming company had been sentence to a one-year imprisonment. He had been in prison a few times before and is now back in prison again.
Although the Khanjani family included both Bahá’ís and Muslims, systematic confrontations and harassment of the family continued during his incarceration. The authorities erected a security station at the entrance to the property where they inspected the cars of family members and did bodily searches. Everyone had to be inspected to be able to go to his/her home. Even the 85-year old mother of Mr Kanjani had to obtain an access card to go to her residence.
Semnan’s Revolutionary Guard and Ministry of Information declared the farm to be a military area. They built a duty post next the site of the demolished family home. Authorities prohibited the transfer the animals to a warmer climate in a truck. As a result a number of the sheep died.
With respect to the condition of Jamaleddin Khanjani in prison; he was over 80 years old and on one occasion, had to be transferred to the hospital once for a heart surgery. He was immediately returned to prison although having a medical furlough would have been the usual procedure.
Mr. Khanjani's family members had been the objects of persecution as well. Foad, his grandson had been in prison for four years and his granddaughter, Leva, had just completed her sentence. His nephew, Navid, who had filed a complaint with the judicial system for having been deprived of education, was faced with fictitious charges and had been sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. He has had a number of medical issues for which he has not received adequate treatment.
The workplace of Mr. Khanjani’s son who worked in the optical field had been raided a few months prior. All his belongings and property were confiscated based on unfounded accusations of illicit transactions. He had spent some time in prison and had been recently been released.
Mr. Khanjani's brother had a factory in Semnan and had imported equipment for making prescription lenses from Germany. He had suspended work in his factory for the anniversary of passing of Bahá’u’lláh and the authorities closed his business based on different excuses. The Ministry of Information asked him why the factory had been closed and he said it was his religious holiday. They shuttered the factory permanently, confiscated all the equipment and auctioned it all without any compensation.
Although a large number of their family members were Muslim they lived together, the Muslims participating in the Bahá’í commemorations and the Bahá’ís participating in theirs.
[Iran Press Watch 11853]

A global campaign called "Seven Days in Remembrance of Seven Years in Prison for the Seven Baha'i Leaders" to call attention to the long and unjust imprisonment of seven Iranian Baha'i leaders was launched on the seventh anniversary of their arrest. Each day of the week-long campaign, starting 14 May 2015, was dedicated to one member of the seven: Mahvash Sabet, Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Behrouz Tavakkoli, and Vahid Tizfahm.
[7 Days]

The Qom Seminary* announced the planning of classes called “Understanding Baha’ism” and “Understanding Ahl-e Haqq”. These classes, which present a one-sided view of religious minorities, have the sole purpose of destroying the Baha’i Faith and the Ahl-e Haqq**.
Subsequently, the Qom Seminary started an extensive propaganda on these subjects in most government centres and government sponsored news websites. In an advertisement on its site, Tasnim news agency announced that the Qom Seminary intended to hold online introductory courses on the Bahá'í Faith and the Ahl-e Haqq for all seminary students in the country. Similar to other classes held in previous years, these courses provide an entirely one-sided view and no Bahá'í or Ahl-e Haqq citizen had the right to defend his religion. [Iran Press Watch 12642]
*The Qom Seminary is the largest seminary, or traditional Islamic school of higher learning, established in 1922 by Grand Ayatollah Abdul-Karim Ha’eri Yazdi in Qom. [Wikipedia]
**Ahl-e Haq (Dervishes)– “The People of the Absolute Truth” ‒ People treading the Ahl-e Haqq Muslim ascetic path, known for their extreme poverty and austerity. Their focus is on the universal values of love and service deserting the illusions of ego to reach God. [Wikipedia]

Ayatollah Abdol-Hamid Masoumi-Tehrani, a senior Muslim cleric in Iran, has courageously called on his nation's people to uphold a higher standard of justice and dignity for all of their countrymen and women. In an article on his website, he dedicated a new piece of calligraphy—a passage from the writings of Bahá'u'lláh—to the Bahá'ís who were arrested on baseless charges in November 2015. [BWNS1089, BWNS987]

In observance of the eighth anniversary of the arrest and incarceration of seven Iranian Baha’i leaders, the Baha’i International Community was launched a global campaign calling for their immediate release.
Taking the theme “Enough! Release the Baha’i Seven,” the campaign emphasized the fact that, under Iran’s own national penal code, the seven were now overdue for conditional release.
[Enough!]

Fariba Kamalabadi, while on a five-day furlough from Evin Prison, met with former Tehran MP Faezeh Hashemi. It was the first temporary leave she had been granted during her eight years of imprisonment.

Faezeh Hashemi was the activist daughter of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and she previously shared a prison cell with Kamalabadi in Evin Prison. Hashemi was strongly condemned by politicians and religious leaders. A high-ranking member of the Iranian Judiciary vowed that action will be taken against her. Despite the widespread criticism she received from powerful quarters in Iran, Faezeh Hashemi publicly defended her decision to meet with Kamalabadi. [Iran Press Watch, from NY Times, BWNS1108]

In a letter the BIC calls on Iranian President Rouhani to end systematic economic oppression. The letter signed by Bani Dugal, Principal Representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations, draws attention to the stark contradiction between statements espoused by the Iranian government regarding economic justice, equality for all and reducing unemployment on one hand, and the unrelenting efforts to impoverish a section of its own citizens on the other.

In a message from the Universal House of Justice to the Bahá'ís in Iran dated the 19th of October, 2016, it states And at the age of sixty-three, that pure soul, that radiant and magnanimous soul, offered up his life in absolute meekness, hoisted the
ensign of martyrdom and attained his Beloved's presence in the realms above, and in the Abha Kingdom joined the company of the other martyrs of this Faith--among whom number his own noble father and six other relatives who, sixty-one
years ago in Hurmuzak, near Yazd, sacrificed their lives in the path of the Blessed Beauty.

A group of extremists murdered Amiri’s father, Hedayatollah Daftari, and six others in the village of Hormozak in Yazd province more than 60 years ago. At the time, Farhang was 13 months old. See entry for July 28th, 1955 for The Seven Martyrs of Hurmuzak.

See a paper by Kamyar Behrang entitled "Extrajudicial killings supported by law and Islamic jurisprudence" for an explanation of how a Bahá'í might be murdered with near impunity in Iran.

A list of resolutions by the United Nations and United Nations bodies that reference the situation of Baha’is in Iran since 1980 can be found
at this location.

An annex to The Bahá'í Question Revisited is the report called "Inciting Hatred". It is an analysis of approximately 400 anti-Baha'i articles, broadcasts, and webpages from late December 2009 through May 2011 and can be found here.

A list of the 222 Baha’is who have been killed in Iran since 1978 can be read here.

From her cell in Evin prison, In a open letter to her six-month old granddaughter, Bajar. Fariba Kamalabadi one of the members of the imprisoned Yaran of Iran, wrote about the suffering of the Bahá'í citizens and of her dreams for humanity. [Iran Press Watch 16140]

The Bahá'í International Community (BIC) announces the launch of a website for the Bahá'ís of Iran at Bahaisofiran.org. "Although the official website of the worldwide Baha'i community has recently been made available in Persian and a number of other languages, the new "Baha'is of Iran" website is the first website of the Baha'i community of Iran. This development is especially important at a time when a large volume of anti-Baha'i propaganda has proliferated in that country. Since 2013 alone, more than 20,000 such pieces have been disseminated in Iran's media." [BWNS1152, The Baha'i Question Revisited]

The film Changing the World, One Wall at a Time was premiered in Harlem on the 5th of May and in Los Angeles on the 5th of June. The film evolved from shorter videos that were posted from the "Education is not a Crime" campaign and was made by Iranian-Canadian filmmaker Maziar Baharie. [BWNS1173]

The Baha'i International Community launched a global campaign calling for the immediate release of the seven Iranian Baha'i leaders, unjustly imprisoned for nine years as of the 14th of May.
The theme of the campaign, “Not Another Year,” was intended to raise awareness about the seven women and men unjustly arrested in 2008 and sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for their religious beliefs. This sentence was reduced to 10 years in 2015 after the overdue application of a new Iranian Penal Code.
[BWNS1167]

The official video of the Bahá'í International Community to commemorate the 9th anniversary of the arrest and imprisonment of seven Iranian Bahá'í leaders - Not Another Year.

The men who admitted to stabbing and killing Farhang Amiri, a 63-year-old father of four children, in September 2016 in Yazd on the street outside his home in public view were sentenced by a court in Yazd. The two brothers immediately admitted to have been motivated by religious hatred. The older brother was sentenced to just 11 years in prison and two years away from home. The court justified the sentence by stating that according to the Islamic penal code, the accused and the victim are not equal for the general purpose of retributive justice. This astonishing provision clearly and deliberately deprives non-Muslims of the legal right to seek justice on equal-footing with the country's Muslim majority.

The younger man was sentenced to half of his brother’s sentence for aiding in the murder.
[BWNS1182]

The release of the film The Cost of Discrimination> by Arash Azizi and Maziar Bahari which compared the social costs of discrimination in present day Iran and South Africa under the apartheid regime where, like in Iran, the Dutch Reform Church used their Holy Texts to justify the suppressive measures taken against people of "non-European" origin.

Mahvash Sabet, one of the seven members of the former leadership group of the Baha'is in Iran known as the Yaran, was relesed after 10 years of confinement in Iran's notorious Evin and Raja'i Shahr prisons. She had been arrested in March 2008 and was now 64 years old. Mrs. Sabet distinguished herself by the loving care and kindness she extended to her fellow prisoners. As has occurred with prisoners of conscience, writers, thought-leaders, and poets who have been wrongly imprisoned throughout history, the power of Mrs. Sabet's ideas and beliefs was only amplified by her persecution. The plight of its author attracted attention to this deeply moving collection of poetry, inspiring PEN International to feature Mrs. Sabet in a campaign to defend persecuted writers. Her poems also inspired a musical composition by award-winning composer Lasse Thoresen, performed at an international music festival in Oslo earlier this year. [BWNS1198]

The Iranian Baha’i community was targeted during the bicentenary period. Between 18 and 21 October, some 19 individuals were arrested in Kermanshah, Tehran, and Birjand, and the homes 25 Baha’is were raided. Twenty-six Baha’i-owned shops around the country were sealed off by authorities because the owners observed the Holy Day on 21 October. These closures occurred in Shiraz, Marvdasht, Gorgan, and Gonbad. [BWNS1215]

Yemeni security forces raided a Baha’i gathering in Sana’a opening fire on the small group of people assembled to commemorate the bicentenary of the birth of Baha’u’llah. The attack occurred in the family home of prominent tribal leader Walid Ayyash, who had been abducted in April and whose whereabouts were unknown. The attackers were reportedly in four cars and an armored vehicle which they used to break down the front door of the house. They arrested Mr. Ayyash’s brother, Akram Ayyash.
This event proved unequivocally the extent of Iran’s role in the persecution of the Baha’is in Yemen, especially in Sana’a, which is under the control of Iranian-backed militias. Similar attacks occurred in Iran during the period of celebration of the bicentennial of the birth of Bahá'úlláh.
[BWNS1215]

Fariba Kamalabadi, a member of the former leadership group of the Baha’is called the "Yaran", concluded her ten-year prison sentence. She was the second individual from among the former Yaran to be released. She, along with five others, were arrested on the 14th of May, 2008. Mrs. Kamalabadi had graduated from high school with honours but was barred from attending university because of her Faith. In her mid-30s, she embarked on an eight-year period of informal study and ultimately received an advanced degree in developmental psychology from the Bahá’í Institute of Higher Education (BIHE), an alternative institution established by the Bahá’í community of Iran to provide higher education for its young people. She worked as a developmental psychologist before her arrest and imprisonment. She was also married with three children. Along with the deprivations of imprisonment itself (she had spent 2 1/2 years of the 10-year sentence in solitary confinement), Mrs. Kamalabadi was also deprived of irreplaceable family moments, including the birth of her first grandchild and the weddings of her daughters. She was 55 years old upon her release. [BWNS1217]

See Huffington Post for an article entitled "Iran’s Baha’i Problem" by Payam Akhavan about the visit of Ms. Faezeh Hashemi, the well-known daughter of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who made a visit to her home while she was on leave from prison.

Ms Hashemi, herself a former MP, was heavily criticized after she met with Ms Kamalabadi. See the article in The Guardian for details.

Three young Iranians who complained to state officials after being denied university entrance for being followers of the Bahá'í Faith have each been sentenced to five years in prison. Rouhieh Safajoo (21), Sarmad Shadabi (22), and Tara Houshmand (21) were convicted of the charges of “membership in the anti-state Baha’i cult” and “publishing falsehoods.” [IFMAT 14NOV17]

A committee of the United Nations General Assembly condemned Iran by a vote of 83 to 30 with 68 abstentions for its continuing violations of human rights, the 30th such resolution since 1985.
The Third Committee of the General Assembly approved a five-page resolution expressing concern over illegal practices ranging from torture, poor prison conditions, arbitrary detention, and curbs on freedom of religion or belief to state-endorsed discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities as well as women.
The resolution expressed specific concern over Iran’s treatment of members of the Baha’i Faith and highlighted the economic and educational discrimination against them and called on Iran to release the more than 90 Baha’is who were unjustly held in Iranian prisons.
The resolution follows a strongly worded document from the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Asma Jahangir. Her 23-page report, released earlier this session, catalogued a broad range of rights violations by Iran.
[BWNS1221]

In response to growing interest in the persecution of the Bahá’ís of Iran, a website was launched by the Bahá’í International Community providing a glimpse into several decades of discriminatory treatment against the Bahá’ís in that country. The website, named Archives of Bahá’í Persecution in Iran, made available, for the first time, thousands of official documents, reports, testimonials, and audio-visual material, revealing documentary evidence of years of relentless oppression.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), an NGO working to promote the right to freedom of religion or belief of all and raising awareness about the persecution of Christians and other religious groups around the world, published a shocking report that revealed the influence of religious persecution on religious minority children. In its Faith and a Future report, CSW focuses on the situation of religious minority children in educational settings in Burma, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan. The report scrutinizes three common acts of persecution in the educational setting specifically bias, discrimination and abuse.
In Iran, bias can be seen across various educational materials in the country. School textbooks are focused on the Shi’a Muslim perspective and are silent on any other religions. This has an adverse effect on religious minorities. Children belonging to the Baha’i religion are denied access to schools and often access to higher education. Baha’i children that are lucky to be enrolled in schools are not free to learn or partake in their religious belief. According to the CSW report, a memorandum from the Iran government stated that Baha’i children ‘should be enrolled in schools which have a strong and imposing religious [Shi’a] ideology.’ The situation for children partaking in higher education is no better. According to Article 3 of the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council’s student qualification regulations (1991), students are to be expelled if they are found to be Baha’i. Only Muslim or students belonging to recognized religions are allowed to take the national enrolment exam. The report further alleges that some Baha’i children have been subjected to physical abuse at schools. [Iran Press Watch 18838]

The release of Saeid Rezaie, one of the seven members of the Yaran, the former leadership group of the Baha’is in Iran after completing his 10-year sentence. He was the fourth person from among the Yaran to be released. [BWNS1238]

In an open letter, twenty-five prominent international lawyers and human right activists appealed to Mohammad Javad Larijani, the Secretary-General of the High Council for Human Rights in Iran, to take steps to end the persecution of the Bahá'ís in Iran. In the letter they make reference to the new website, "Archives of the Bahá'í Persecution in Iran", stating that it “vividly demonstrates the depth and breadth of unjust, relentless, and systematic oppression against a religious minority”. [BICNews10Feb2018]

Mr. Jamaloddin Khanjani, a former member of the Yaran, was transferred from Evin Prison to a hospital as per directions of the prison doctor after experiencing heart issues. He underwent surgery and, after spending a few days in the ICU, was transferred back to prison. Mr. Khanjani suffered from old age and multiple ailments. He had been in prison since May 18, 2008. Throughout his 10-year term he has not been allowed a single day of leave. Security and Judicial authorities did not even allow him to attend his wife’s funeral. His sentence was completed on March 22. [Iran Press Watch 18815]

The release of Mr. Vahid Tizfahm from the Rajaee Shahr Prison in Karaj after having completed his 10-year sentence. He was the sixth of the seven Bahá'í leaders to be released from prison.
At this time the 10 year term of the remaining prisoner, Mr Afif Naeimi, had two months yet to serve. Due to a serious illness he was released to the custody of his family while receiving medical treatment under the proviso that he would return to prison when deemed medically fit. [BWNS1245, Iran Press Watch, 29 March, 2018, Iran Press Watch 30 March, 2018]

Afif Naeimi, the seventh and last imprisoned member of the Yaran, returned to Rajaee Shahr Prison (also known as Gohardasht Prison) near Tehran at the end of his medical leave despite suffering from life-threatening ailments.
On May 1 the judiciary’s medical experts had ruled that the 57-year-old is too ill to be incarcerated.
Naeimi, who has completed his 10-year prison sentence, should have been released by that time but the judiciary extended his term by more than nine months—the period he was out of prison on furlough receiving medical treatment. He has hypertrophy, a condition where the heart muscle thickens and he is afflicted with Syncope disease, which causes temporary losses of consciousness. [Iran Press Watch 18975; Iran Press Watch 18975]

The body of a Bahá'í citizen, Shamsi Aghdasi Azamian, from Gilavand, a suburb of the city of Damavand was exhumed by unknown individuals several days after being buried in the Gilavand Bahá'í Cemetery and abandoned in the deserts of Jaban in the suburbs of that city. No individual or institution has accepted responsibility for this action, although security forces had told the Gilavand Baha’is earlier that they had no right to bury their deceased member in this place, and that they should perform burials only in Tehran. Her son refused to move the body but found that it had been taken to Tehran which is a distance of some two hours away. [Iran Press Watch 19720]

Subsequently, a group of progressive Muslims strongly condemned the “desecration and excavation of the grave of a Baha’i compatriot.” In their statement the “systematic and deeply rooted denial of Bahá'í citizens’ rights” was denounced, and the violation of their citizenship rights was called a “hateful” act, “born of ignorant prejudice.”
The signatories of the statement called for an open investigation and prosecution of perpetrators and facilitators. The message can be seen at Iran Press Watch19731.

The last imprisoned member of the former leadership body of the Bahá'í community in Iran was released from prison after serving a 10-year prison sentence. He was arrested on 14 May 2008 and charged with, among other false claims, espionage, propaganda against Iran, and the establishment of an illegal administration. Mr. Naeimi and the other six former members of the Yaran faced those charges more than a year after their arrest in a sham trial without any semblance of legal process. Authorities sentenced Mr. Naeimi and the other former members of the Yaran to 10 years in prison.
While detained, Mr. Naeimi experienced severe health problems, often receiving inadequate treatment. Authorities made a cruel determination that the brief time Mr. Naeimi, a father of two from Tehran, spent in a hospital recovering would not be counted as part of his sentence.
[BWNS1302]

Alavíyyih Khánum and 'Alí Ján, Mullá, by Mehraeen Mottahedin-Mavaddat and Moojan Momen, in The Bahá'í Encyclopedia (2009). On the couple, both distinguished Iranian teachers of the Bahá’í Faith; Mullá ‘Alí Ján was executed for his faith. [about]

Anti-Bahá'í Society, The, by Mehdi Abedi and Michael M.J. Fischer, in Debating Muslims: Cultural Dialogues in Postmodernity and Tradition (1990). Autobiographical stories of Abedi and his involvement in opposition to the Baha'i Faith in Iran with the "Anjoman-e Zedd-e Bahá'íyat." [about]

Aqasi, Haji Mirza ('Abbas Iravani), by Sholeh A. Quinn, in The Bahá'í Encyclopedia (2009). On the prime minister of Iran under Muhammad Shah Qajar from 1835 to 1848, regarded by Bahá’ís as the Antichrist of the Bábí dispensation. [about]

At Home in the Ghettos: Bahá'ís in Iran, by Leila Chamankhah, in MEI Occasional Paper, 5 (2010). Essay on the causes of distrust and estrangement between Shias and Baha'is. The term "ghetto" here refers to ideologically separated communities. (Offsite.) [about]

Babi and Bahá'í community of Iran, The: A case of 'suspended genocide'?, by Moojan Momen, in Journal of Genocide Research, 7:2 (2005). A description of the four phases of the persecutions that the Babis and Baha’is in Iran have suffered (the Babis, the early Baha'is, during the Pahlavi dynasty, and following the 1979 Islamic revolution) and how they fit in with categories of genocide. [about]

Babi-State Conflicts of 1848-1853, The, by Siyamak Zabihi-Moghaddam (2003). Overview of four conflicts between the Babis and the Qajar state: one at Shaykh Tabarsi in Mazandaran (1848), one in Zanjan (1850), and two in Nayriz (1850, 1853). [about]

Badí` Khurasani, by Moojan Momen (1995). Short biography of Badi, a Baha'i renowned for his bravery and devotion. [about]

Bahá'í Health Initiatives in Iran: A preliminary survey, by Seena B. Fazel and Minou Foadi, in The Bahá'ís of Iran: Socio-historical Studies, ed. Dominic Parviz Brookshaw & Seena B. Fazel (2008). Baha'i-related initiatives in Iran in the 19th-20th centuries: Baha'is made important contributions to public health such as introducing showers in public baths, school vaccinations, women's health, and privately-financed clinics open to all Iranians. [about]

Bahá'í Martyrdoms in Persia in the Year 1903 AD, by Haji Mirza Haydar-Ali Isfahani (1917). A memoir by Abdu'l-Baha, erroneously credited to Haji Mirza Haydar-Ali, published in English as a 28-page book in 1904 and 1917, covering events from March-September 1903. [about]

Baha'i Studies in Iran: A Preliminary Survey, by Bijan Ma'sumian and Adib Ma'sumian, in Bahá'í Studies Review, 20 (2014). Overview of the cultivation and evolution of religious education in the Baha’i Faith in Iran in the 19th and 20th centuries. [about]

Bahá'u'lláh and the Fourth Estate, by Roger White, in Bahá'í World, Vol. 18 (1979-1983) (1986). Baha'u'llah's response to the martyrdom of seven Baha'is in Yazd in May, 1891, and his relationship with the media. [about]

Brutal Slashing to Death of Dr Berjis, The, by Nasser Mohajer, in Bahá'í Studies Review, 17:1 (2011). English translation of an article in Persian about persecutions during the Pahlavi regime, and the death of a Baha'i doctor in 1950. [about]

Dawn over Mount Hira and Other Essays, by Marzieh Gail (1976). A collection of essays on various topics of interest to Baha'i studies and history. Most of these were first published in Star of the West and World Order between 1929 and 1971. [about]

Deaths of Two Iranian Bahá'ís, 1997, by Universal House of Justice and National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States (1997). Reports from the Universal House of Justice and the NSA of the United States on the deaths of Masha'llah Enayati and Shahram Reza'i. [about]

Events and Tragedies of Manshád, The, by Muhammad-Tahir Malmiri (2007). Events and martyrs from the uprisings in Manshad and Yazd, in 1903. A translation of Haji Málmírí's Tarikh Shuhaday Yazd, pp. 432-503. [about]

Non-Involvement in Partisan Politics, by Universal House of Justice (2013). Lengthy letter to the Baha'is of Iran, and copied to all NSAs, about how Baha'is can contribute to global civilization-building partly through the community's own growth and development, and through non-political involvement in society at large. [about]

Paranoid Style in Iranian Politics, The, by Ervand Abrahamian, in Khomeinism: Essays on the Islamic Republic (1993). A seminal essay which mentions contemporary Iranian attitudes toward the Baha'is. Includes three other mentions of the Baha'i Faith elsewhere in the book in which this essay was first published. [about]

Persian Revolution of 1905-1909, The, by E. G. Browne (1910). Includes discussion of Bahá'ís and Bábís in "Attitude of Bahá’ís towards Persian Politics" (pp. 424-429) and "The Assassination of Nasiru'd-Din Shah" (60-62). Search text for Bábí for other references. [about]

Petition from the Persian Reformers (1867). A petition sent by Baha'is in Baghdad and Shushtar, Iran, in 1867 to the US Consulate general, seeking assistance in getting Baha'u'llah released from imposed exile. [about]

Quiet Exodus, A, by Geoffrey Cameron, in Literary Review of Canada (2013). Recent history of immigration law and practice in Canada, and the Baha'i community's involvement in governmental change. Includes addendum from Baha'i News Canada.[about]

Releasing the Captive from His Chains, by Steven Scholl, in dialogue magazine, 1:1 (1986). Baha'i activism for human rights, and involvement with Amnesty International. Includes response by Drew Remignanti. [about]

Religious Minority Rights, by Christopher Buck, in Islamic World, ed. Andrew Rippin (2008). Discussion of three minority religions within Islamic states that have experienced persecution and hardships which attracted the attention of the international community: the Alevis, the Ahmadiyya, and Baha'is. [about]

Searching for Bahá'í Identity, by Alexandra Leavy, in Journal of Cultural Studies of the Middle East and North Africa (2009). How do religious minorities adapt to the new nationalist identity of Iran post-1979? [about]

Social Basis of the Bábí Upheavals in Iran (1848-1953): A Preliminary Analysis, by Moojan Momen, in International Journal of Middle East Studies, 15 (1983). In the mid-19th century, Iran was shaken by unrest caused by the Babi movement, which set off a chain of events that led on the one hand, to the constitutional movement in Iran, and on the other, to the establishment of the now world-wide Baha'i Faith. [about]

Taqiyyah (Dissimulation) in the Babi and Bahá'í Religions, by Sepehr Manuchehri, in Australian Bahá'í Studies, 2 (2000). The historical application of taqiyyah and instances where Bábís cooperated with the authorities in suppression of their peers, and the attitude of government officials towards these individuals. [about]

Television Address of Iranian President Khatami, by Universal House of Justice and Bahá'í International Community (1998). Questions and answers about a historically unique television interview of Iranian President Khatami, given on CNN Wednesday, Jan 7, 1998. [about]